Bill's Story

"It was a Saturday and I was having a wonderful day. After plugging away in the office all week doing my accounting thing, I was working my part-time job. I loved my weekend job because I got to drive an 18 wheeler tanker rig. Yeah, one of those big monstrous metal machines that belch out black smoke and bounce around like a Disney ride. Cool, huh? It was like therapy to me.

I hauled tanker loads of gasoline to gas stations. 8,500 gallons worth at a time.

But during one of my runs, something went terribly wrong. While negotiating a sharp curve, the entire rig began to roll over and break apart right before my very eyes. It was like slow motion and fast forward all jumbled together.

Metal grinding! Glass breaking! Gas leaking! Sparks flying! Flames erupting! Hot!! Very hot!!!

In a matter of seconds, my life was turned completely upside down... and would never be the same again. The instant those flames engulfed my truck, I was certain my life had come to an end. And in those next few precious seconds, even as I scrambled to find an escape from that tumbling rig, I started thinking about all the things I had promised myself I would do someday... but hadn’t. Not a predicament I relished being in. Not the kind of wake-up call I had in mind.

Obviously, I survived that accident but was burned quite badly. I didn’t plan on getting toasted that day. But plans have a way of changing!

Burn units have this magical formula, this vital calculation that helps them determine a newly arriving burn victim’s chance of surviving. They add the age of the patient to the percent of burned skin. Anything over one hundred is tough to survive. I was forty-two years old with sixty percent burns over my body. At one hundred and two, I was over the limit. The odds were against me.

Surviving a big burn is not easy. Believe me, I know. It is just as much a mental war as a physical one. It is a head game. It is mind over matter in the purist form. And I chose to wrap my mind around two passions that have been a part of me since I was young, playing piano and climbing mountains. I used those passions to mentally work to my advantage. I so desperately wanted to be able to climb mountains again and play the piano again, I was willing to endure physical and mental anguish beyond description.

It was over two years of surgeries, therapy, and hard work before my doctors finally cut me loose. And what I learned through that process, that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world, are insights, are lessons that have guided my life ever since.

I want to share those insights with you.

And yes, I climb mountains again and I might even play a song for you on my piano. You never know..."