Never Give Up

By Susan L Spahn

This is the true story of 12 year old Billy Spahn, a happy, athletic, energetic kid from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Going up to his family’s cottage was always the highlight of his summer. On July 3, 1975, Billy dove into the lake and broke his neck. His family was told he was a quadriplegic and he should be put in a nursing home. His family never accepted that prognosis and they never told Billy that he wouldn’t walk again.

This is the story of one child’s strength and determination to retrain his body and get his life back.

Bill Spahn became a successful businessman, in addition to having his own fishing show. He retired at the age of 45, a multi-millionaire.

This book is a true testament to what can be accomplished with courage, faith, hope and love – and, most importantly, when you... Never Give Up!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susan L Spahn
• Release date: Mar 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311309617

Book preview

Every one of us will suffer a loss in our lifetime – most of us, several. One of the most horrible things for a parent to endure is the loss of a child – or having a child so severely injured that it is a life-changing event – for the child, the parents, family and friends. This is the true story of my brother’s life.

Paralyzed from the neck down at the age of 12, our parents were told he would never walk again. They were told he would probably be in a nursing home for the rest of his life – unable to move anything. This is the true account of his many struggles to overcome the worst situation one child can ever face. This is the story of his fight to overcome every obstacle life threw at him and his day-to-day struggles to retrain his body to work with him, not against him.

They say there are five stages of grief. The first stage is Denial. No one in our family could accept that Billy would never walk again.

The second stage is Anger. Every one of us was angry. We were angry that this was happening, he had so much going for him. No one in our family ever doubted that someday Billy would play for the Green Bay Packers.

The third stage of grief is to Bargain. My dad promised God that if he would let Billy walk again he would go to church every week for the rest of his life, and he has.

The fourth stage is Depression. I know the longer Billy was in the hospital, the more depressing it was for everyone in our family. My mom blamed herself for taking him up to the lake that day. My sister Karen blamed herself for not taking him to play tennis that day. I blamed myself for having to work and not being at the lake when the accident happened. My dad blamed himself for buying the lot and building our cottage on Lake Camelot.

The final stage of grief is Acceptance. Our family skipped that stage. Not one of us ever accepted that he would not walk again – and we never gave up!

This is a story of uncompromising courage, hope, faith and love. The story of one child’s daily fight to get his life back. The story of a mother and sister who refused to leave his side and the story of a father who invented equipment the hospital did not have, and tried every type of health care professional or healer he could find to fix his son.

This is the true account of a family dedicated to returning a 12-year old boy back to his life. My brother, Billy, was a young, strong, healthy, vibrant boy with his whole life ahead of him who, in one brief instant, had his whole world turned upside down.

My brother and I agree that if this story could help give one family hope and inspiration in a similar situation, then this book will have served a great purpose. My brother has wanted to write this book for many years, searching for ghost writers, to no avail. Everyone knew this story needed to be told. My brother and I finally decided to give it a shot. In Bill’s words, If we never make a penny off this book but one person reads it and it makes a difference in their life, then we will have done a good thing. I do not claim to be a writer. I am a reader. I generally read one book a week. But this story needs to be told. I have been working on this book, off and on, for eight years. I have taken writing and publishing classes and have read many books about writing and various medical issues. I have spent countless hours doing interviews and transcribing tapes, in order to do this story justice.

During the writing of this book, the interviews, researching and talking to my family, we lost my mother at the age of 78 in 2010. In 2011, we lost my sister Karen. She was only 58 years old. She was much too young and full of life to be taken from us. They were key parts of this story, yet their memories of the incident are lost, gone with them. I did get their accounts, although I would love to be able to call one of them as I type this to ask them a question. They will forever be in our hearts and on our minds. Without those two courageous, loving, generous wonderful women I would not be writing this book, because my brother would not still be here to write a book about. I can’t help but think of them when I look at my brother, they truly saved his life. Although they may have saved his life – my father and Jerry Enstrom, his physical therapist, gave him his life back. My father is my brother’s best friend and he is also his hero. Without our father, my brother would not be the man he is, he may not even be alive today. I have spent years trying to write this story with as much fact, honesty and integrity as I could. I just hope and pray that it’s in time to save at least one child from going through what my brother went through.

This is the true story of Bill Spahn II, who was considered a quadriplegic at the age of 12. Our parents were told he would never walk again and that he should probably be put in a home, with others like him. This is the story of a twelve year old child, who had to grow up much faster than he should have. He never gave up, his therapist never gave up, and his parents, sisters, family and friends never gave up.

This is my brother’s story, it is his to tell. It is a story of love, courage and inspiration in the face of adversity and many challenges. There is a common theme which runs throughout this story – never give up. And that is where the truth, faith, love and inspiration come from – no one ever gave up – it was not an option in our family.

Chapter 1

The Day That Changed Our Lives – Sue

July 3, 1975 started like any other day – I had gone to work at Nino’s Steak House in Madison, Wisconsin. My oldest sister Karen had worked there as a waitress. She was a beautiful girl with long blonde hair. Jenifer, born in 1955, was my parents’ second child. She was also beautiful with long brown hair and she had also worked at Nino’s as a salad girl. I was following in her footsteps. I was two years younger than Jenifer and five years older than the youngest member of our family, Billy. Working at Nino’s was my first job, if you don’t count babysitting and picking strawberries for two summers. I started working at Nino’s, as a salad girl, when I was 16 years old. It was a great job. I still remember that you could get a filet mignon for $4.95 and two lobster tails for $7.95. They had excellent food. It was a great steak house, everyone in our family loved Nino’s.

I had just graduated from Sun Prairie Senior High School and was looking forward to starting college in September. This particular day I was anxious to get off work because the family was heading up to our cottage at Lake Camelot, about two hours north of Sun Prairie. As I finished cleaning up the kitchen and saying goodbye to my co-workers, I was already planning what I would pack to take up to the lake.

Karen and her dog Tasha, my mother Lois and my younger brother Billy had gone up ahead of the rest of us. My dad would be coming up later that night when he finished working. My sister Jenifer was living in Colorado at the time. I would be driving up alone. By the time I would arrive everyone would already be there, except for my dad. I was anxious to get up there because I was always the one who pulled any weeds on the beach and in the water so everyone would enjoy hanging out at the beach. My grandfather, Hank Spahn, would also be up at the cottage for the holiday. Grandpa lived most of the year in California. He would collect rocks in the desert and polish them up in his rock polisher to make jewelry. When Grandpa came to Wisconsin to visit, he lived in a small trailer which sat atop his pickup truck. Grandpa always had stories to tell and beautiful stones to show. My favorite was one that looked like a monkey. He carried this stone in his pocket and it made a great conversation piece, especially with the older ladies! He’d tease, Want to see my monkey?

My father has carried this stone in his pocket every day, since the day my grandpa passed away on December 26, 1982. The day my oldest sister Karen passed away he lost it. He could not find it anywhere. One day a few years later he found it in the door pocket of his Chevrolet Suburban. Like his father before him, he carried this stone in his pocket almost every day for over 30 years.

My parents bought a lot on Lake Camelot, a man-made lake, around 1967. The first couple of years we camped out in tents when we would go up on weekends or for vacation. My dad worked up the plans and he and Grandpa Hank built a beautiful four bedroom cottage, with two bathrooms, a beautiful stone fireplace and a windowed front walkway overlooking the lake. When the cottage was at the point for the roof to be shingled, my dad asked if I would like to help him. I was thrilled that he asked me. I can remember feeling so proud that we would do this project together, just the two of us. Dad and I spent the morning shingling the roof, telling stories and jokes and laughing a lot. At lunchtime, my mom climbed up the ladder and brought us lunch and sodas.

When we finally finished the roof, dad said, Good job Sue, c’mon let’s go down. He carried the tools and went down the ladder first. I put my hands on the ladder and both my feet on the ladder and I froze. I could not move. I had spent the entire day on the roof, but now that I was on the ladder I was scared to death to move. My dad had to climb back up the ladder and talk me down, one foot and one hand, at a time. That was the day I learned that I was afraid of heights. Other than that, it was a great day, just hanging out all day with my dad. Lake Camelot was truly our favorite place to go. There was an Association building for people who owned lots but did not build. There was a game room, tennis courts, a store, showers and a bulletin board where people listed lots and boats for sale and the Associate Members’ Meeting minutes of the last meeting held. Once we had our cottage built we rarely went to the Association building, except to play tennis.

I made it home from Nino’s about 4:00 p.m. that day and was surprised to see Grandpa Hank sitting out on the front steps. I pulled into the driveway and began to get out of my car and I could tell Grandpa was in distress. I could hear him making a low groaning sound. I yelled, Grandpa, what’s wrong, are you locked out of the house? Grandpa rose from the porch stoop and began walking over to me,