| Ian Troxell | Carol Carbone | Krista Harakal | Nicole Fort | Darryl Goode |
| Paul Scheuerle | Millie Stenhouse | Kurt Cortazzo | Olivia Sterner |

By God's Grace

Struck by polio as an infant, Darryl Goode believes divine intervention led him to Good Shepherd where therapists taught him to walk normally for the first time in his life.

The late afternoon sun streams in ribboned shafts of light through the towering windows of the Resurrection Worship Center, a converted bank building at the corner of Ridge Avenue and Tilghman Streets in Allentown. Slowly a crowd of worshippers begins filtering in, many dropping to their knees and delving deep into prayer.

Joining in this Monday evening prayer service is 44-year-old Darryl Goode. He is grateful for many things, among them, the ability to do something that less than a year ago he only dreamed of … to walk upright into that sanctuary like every other man, woman and child.

“I thank the Lord for all he has done for me,” Darryl says, his eyes lighting up with pure joy. “I always knew that God would provide a way for me to walk, and He did.”

Darryl’s life-path has not been easy, marked by homelessness, drug abuse and a broken family in his youth. There was something else, too. Polio, a crippling virus that reached epidemic proportions in 1952, put its stamp on Darryl when he was an infant, causing his right leg to become deformed. He walked by using his right hand to move his leg.

Darryl’s improvisational mobility worked. He rode his bike, played basketball and did many of the things like other boys his age. But his rambunctious spirit resulted in a string of broken leg braces which he eventually abandoned. Over time, his leg continued rotating in its hip socket, becoming so twisted his foot pointed backwards, and increasing pain and abnormal growth in his spine forced him to walk bent over like a candy-cane.

But Darryl overcame all his hardships, married a wonderful woman, Danita, and committed to a life in Christ. Still, he dreamed of walking normally. Eventually, he got to where he needed to be – Good Shepherd in Allentown.

Two months after starting neurorehabilitation outpatient therapy, Darryl walked more normally than he’d ever walked before. Now, he sings the praises of Good Shepherd’s orthopedic therapists as loudly as he sings the praises of the Lord in his church.

“God,” he says, “was just lining everything up.”

Seeing the Possibilities
“Honey, I’m home!” Darryl’s voice rings out as he steps off the elevator onto the third floor of Good Shepherd’s Health and Technology Center. It’s been several months since he was an outpatient here and now he’s back for a visit, calling out his trademark greeting. Familiar faces rush forward for one of Darryl’s big bear-like hugs. It’s a homecoming and Darryl clearly is the king.

“Every day I came in here I was so happy,” he says. “The days I didn’t come in, I missed it. This place changed my life.”

Sue Golden, one of Darryl’s physical therapists, remembers the first time they met. He came in with a crutch propped under one arm and a three-point cane in his other hand. Realizing that the crutch and cane were throwing Darryl off-balance, she quickly got him working with two crutches and began focusing on strengthening both his legs.

From the beginning, Darryl’s goal was to walk and dance more normally than he’d ever done before. Sue told him she had no doubts that she could at least get him to walk using a single-point cane. “He just looked at me and started crying,” she says. “I guess nobody else saw his potential but it was pretty obvious to me.”

Her arsenal of tools included the BalanceMaster, a piece of technology developed by NASA to help astronauts re-acclimate to earth’s gravity, as well as other more traditional pieces of equipment such as parallel bars and steps. But it was Darryl’s own motivation that accounts for much of his success.

“He was an incredibly hard worker and if he didn’t have the spirit he had, he would have given up a long time ago,” Sue says. “Nothing was too much for him.”

For Sue and the team of therapists who worked with Darryl, the hardest part was discharging him after nearly four months of therapy. “He was such an incredible breath of fresh air. For him to get to this point is pretty phenomenal,” Sue says.

Reaching his goals, though, would test this great man’s spirit in near super-human ways.

Surgery, Then Hope
Darryl and Danita were living in Florida when Darryl’s advancing deformities and increasing pain were becoming unbearable. His right leg was three inches shorter than his left and the lurching, twisted gait of daily life began taking a toll on other parts of his body, including his left knee which began separating from the other bones in his leg.

Radical surgery was needed. Danita found out about the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York that did limb-lengthening surgery, an innovative technique pioneered in Russia that uses the body’s own capacity to create new bone as well as the soft tissues, ligaments, blood vessels, and nerves that surround and support it. Darryl scheduled an appointment and was accepted as a patient. For a year, the couple flew back and forth between Florida and New York as Darryl underwent a series of surgeries. His right leg was broken in 22 places and stabilized by a long metal cage-like frame with small rods inserted into the leg. His left leg was broken in nine places and encased in a shorter frame.

Facing still more surgeries, Darryl and Danita decided to move closer to New York. Danita had family in Bethlehem, so the Lehigh Valley seemed like a good choice.

Having successfully completed his surgeries and with his right leg lengthened by two inches, Darryl needed rehabilitation therapy. Danita found out about Good Shepherd on the Internet and Darryl called. Despite once being told by a therapist in Florida that he would never walk again, Darryl held fast to his dream. “Other places broke my spirit,” Darryl says, “but when I got to Good Shepherd, the first week, they started teaching me how to walk. At 44, I took my baby steps.”

Now, every step Darryl takes is a step of triumph and an affirmation of life’s possibilities.

During a visit home to Virginia last Thanksgiving to see his mother, Darryl walked into the house, strong and upright, treating her to a sight she’d never seen before. Then, on December 13, 2006, at his nephew’s wedding he fulfilled another goal —to dance with his wife. “We were both crying,” he says. “I can’t even describe it. It was awesome.”

For Darryl Goode, life is just one blessing after another, all of it meant to be shared. He continues to learn things about himself and those who love him most. He’s learned never to give up and that the true worth of a man isn’t measured in how tall he stands, but by the strength of his faith and the depth of his heart.

“When I saw myself stand tall for the first time, I asked my wife, ‘How could you have loved me?’ he says. “She said, ‘I never saw you as having a handicap.’”

And that’s because he never did.