There are so many wonderful people out there, and the generosity we have felt along the way from friends, family, and complete strangers has just been amazing. You see God here on earth in the faces of the people your lives touch.
~ Terry Norton, CaringBridge, October 16, 2012
IN TRUE Chris fashion, he and Emily made friends, loved their time in Michigan, and just made everything work. My doubts about the obstacles they’d face while there were for naught. From the moment he went back to college after his injury, I witnessed the same pattern time and time again. I’d worry about every possible pitfall, and Chris would find a way to make things work just fine.
Chris and Emily also became very involved in the foundations Barwis Methods operates, First Step and Athletic Angels. Both Chris and Emily, so driven to help others, were drawn to the foundations and the work they did for people in need. Their time at Barwis Methods fulfilled every one of their needs.
“There are few people in life that can deal with adversity in a way that is truly uplifting and something that will drive other individuals to achieve success.”
~ Adam W. Busch, Former head football coach at Bondurant-Farrar Community Schools
Chris loved his therapy at Barwis Methods and made so much progress. When he first arrived in Michigan, he couldn’t balance on his own without leg braces for more than four seconds. Soon, he was able to balance for up to ten minutes. As another example of his progress, at first, he had to have fifty pounds offloaded in order to perform a squat. Through hard work and with the expertise of his trainers, he soon progressed to not only squatting his full weight, but also adding thirty-three pounds of resistance!
From the moment Chris introduced us to Emily, we knew she was something special. Gradually, Chris came to depend on Emily in the way he’d counted on his friends at school. It didn’t take long until she was the one helping him work out on the weekends and traveling with him to speaking engagements. Deb and I witnessed another prayer answered as we watched our son fall in love with a beautiful woman who loved him for who he was.
The challenge of planning and preparing for Chris’s surprise proposal was fun and exciting, as we were extremely pleased for both of them. But it was also very stressful. Trying to keep the planning quiet was tough. We had to be sneaky when sending Chris any type of text or e-mail related to the proposal in case Emily happened to see it, so we often disguised our communication as SCI CAN financial information. It was really hard not to shout from the rooftops or tell any of our friends, but we just couldn’t take a chance that word would spread.
Chris was very specific about the setup for the proposal. He wanted the room scattered with flowers, flower petals, candles, and pictures. His sisters made a poster that spelled out, “All of me loves all of you,” quoting the John Legend song they’d adopted as their own. We fashioned, “Will you marry me?” with candles and flower petals on the floor, and had their song playing in the background.
The owner of the restaurant, Kim, called Chris and lured them to the restaurant under the guise of a graduation present he needed to pick up before a big group arrived. Thinking they were heading to a TV interview after they picked up the graduation gift, Emily wore a pretty dress, and they both looked picture perfect. Emily’s family was present, and so was ours, hiding in the restaurant’s kitchen while the actual proposal took place. Emily was totally surprised, very emotional, and thankfully agreeable to becoming Mrs. Christopher Norton. After the proposal, a handful of his friends arrived to celebrate with our two families, capping the evening with laughter and love, so appropriate for Chris and Emily.
With the most important part of Chris’s future secure, we all set our sights on his graduation walk. While exciting, graduation was also very nerve racking because I knew how hard Chris had worked day in and day out for four-and-a-half years to accomplish his goal. More importantly, I knew how much it meant to him and to those who’d followed his journey.
I’d spent the prior year praying daily over his graduation walk and that he wouldn’t be disappointed, no matter the outcome. I knew firsthand how far he’d come in his recovery and the effort he’d expended to get there. As his harshest critic and most ruthless trainer, Chris set high expectations for himself.
I didn’t want what he’d already accomplished—his recovery, the inspiration he’d provided to thousands, and the creation of a non-profit that was already helping so many—to be diminished by whether he walked, crawled, danced, or skipped across the graduation stage. As his dad, I probably knew Chris better than anyone, and he had his heart and mind set on walking. When he said he was going to do something, he planned to do it no matter what.
Worrier that I was, I also fretted about the crowd. Chris’s “actual” class had graduated the year before, he’d finished school in December in order to train in Michigan, and that meant he hadn’t been on campus the whole spring semester. In the back of my mind, I worried over how people would feel about him taking too much time or taking the spotlight, even though it wasn’t intentional.
My concerns vanished as soon as his name was called and the room erupted into thunderous applause. Everyone leapt to their feet, and I felt the surge of energy from the audience guiding Chris and Emily along every step. They clapped and cheered for two minutes straight while he walked and received his diploma. Being in that gymnasium, with the crowd radiating joy, was one of the most incredible atmospheres I have ever experienced.
“I am blown away by how fortunate I am, from the first days of ordering those bracelets, to recently witnessing Chris walk the graduation stage and propose to his girlfriend, to have been a part of everything that has transpired between those two points. I have seen Chris’s story bring out the best in others, the best in myself, and serve as evidence that no matter what road—however dark—life decides to send us down, the choice to see the light is always ours to make.”
~ Rich Holton, Luther classmate and friend
Immediately afterwards, Chris’s face revealed every emotion we felt as he smiled from ear to ear. We all heaved a collective sigh of relief that he’d achieved his goal in the warm embrace of over forty family members and friends in attendance. At lunch after the ceremony, we had much to celebrate and thanked God for our blessings.
Looking back on the day, I remember feeling disappointed when our local TV station cancelled the interview they’d scheduled with Chris the morning of graduation. They planned to stay and cover the event, so when they withdrew, there was no one there reporting. The absence of the media didn’t take anything away from what Chris had accomplished, but I thought it would’ve been nice to have his story shared to possibly inspire others.
It wasn’t long before the media maelstrom began, starting with an online article that garnered many hits and caused the station that cancelled to do a follow-up. The next day, Memorial Day, they sent a TV crew to our house. From there, the story went viral, reaching surreal proportions. CBS Evening News asked for permission to run the story, Chris and Emily appeared on Fox & Friends with Elizabeth Hasselbeck, NBC Nightly News came to our house, followed by an out-of-the-blue flight to New York City to appear live on ABC’s Good Morning America.
Along the journey to New York, major media outlets in Japan, Australia, and the UK contacted Chris requesting to run his story. Every major online media outlet ran his account as well. I went from being disappointed that his inspirational milestone was getting overlooked to feeling humbled by our blessings as his tale went viral. Once again, God had bigger plans than I did.
While graduation ended one chapter of his life, it marked the beginning of another. For the first time in a long time, Chris had the world by the tail, and no matter what came, we all knew he could handle life’s ups and downs.
By the grace of God, “Team Norton” was ready for anything.