Following Norman

"It has now been a week that we came upon him walking along the highway to the east as he pushed a cart in front of him, one filled with his supplies and personal belongings.  We recognized him right away and stopped immediately alongside the roadway. As he turned to look back at us, a wonderful smile came across his face.  Mike and I had found Norman Horn, a 30-year old man who we had seen on the local news from Grand Junction only a few days earlier.  He was coming through our part of the world on his 3,000 mile hike from the west coast to the east, all to bring about awareness of the disease that has become the greatest killer of children, childhood cancer.  We stopped Norm, a stranger along the highway  because we wanted to know how to best help his cause.  As we drove away, the three of us were strangers no more.  Each Thursday as I blog from now until Norman finishes his epic walk in the month of October along the eastern coastline, I plan to use my blog as a way to update anyone reading it about his progress.  You can also follow the journey on his website, www.coast2coastftk.com or on his Facebook page by the same name."

 The first thing that caught my eye that early evening last week along Highway 50 was the cart he was pushing and the sign affixed to the front inside cover of it.  Neatly scrawled in letters that made the "teacher" in me happy, were the words "fight childhood cancer".  A couple of days later when Mike and I met Norman in Gunnison for a late afternoon lunch, he was happy to oblige my request to take a photo of it.  We didn't realize it when we first met on the road, but Norman had been pushing that cart for over 700 miles with a broken front wheel. He had made what repairs he could do himself and plodded on.  It was while he was staying the weekend in Gunnison that a man there helped him by taking it to his shop and doing the repairs on it himself.  Customer service wasn't working out so well from the company that manufactured it.  Personal service, the kind made from the power of the "human touch", by a Gunnison resident named Will literally saved the day.  I love to hear stories like that, stories that tell of really good people, ordinary and very humble folks, who step up to pick up the slack and help out others who really need it.  I don't know you Will but in my books, folks like you are pretty much a hero.

I cannot even imagine what it would be like to rely on an apparatus like Norm's cart to help a hiker make it all the way, 3,000 miles plus across the United States.  Think about it for a moment.  You've got some clothing, food and water, supplies for emergencies, tent and whatever else you might need to survive changes in altitude, weather, and a variety of climates.  I'm looking around our 100-year old farmhouse right now and just visualizing all the stuff we have here that we deem so very necessary to live our lives along the Western Slopes.  Surely thinking that some of it would probably have to go if we were trekking along as Norman is.  The lifestyle he has chosen would definitely have to go into the "traveling light" mode, a textbook example of minimalist living.  After having lunch with him and hearing his story, it became obvious from the "get go" that Norman's focus in life at this moment in time is not about how many material possessions he can amass at his very young age.  His purpose in life, in the very steps that he takes each and every day can most well be summed up in the words that the letters "F T K" stand for.  He's doing all of it "for the kids".

Yesterday he had made the descent off of old Monarch Pass and was working his way down the mountain and towards the Colorado city of Salida.  If he is not already there, he will be very soon.  His path takes him right along the same route that I have driven so many times in my journey back and forth between my former home in Hutchinson, Kansas and my new home here in Montrose County, Colorado.  I know the way with my eyes closed and I worry (ok, ok it's the Mother in me) about how he will make it.  Norman reiterated time and time again that he is most careful and to not fear for him.  Lots of good people drive past him each day and many stop to ask him about what he is doing and how they can help, just like Mike and I did.  I have no doubt at all in my mind that his journey will take him all the way to his final destination, a late October arrival along the Atlantic Ocean. 

I hope that the road is very kind to him and that somewhere along the way, someone will offer him assistance when they can.  A drink of water, a friendly hello, an extra snack or two and the chance for some conversation along what might at times be a very lonely highway.  My heart was so touched that night that we first met him when Mike immediately got out of our car and reached behind the seat in our stash of snacks for the road and found a box of granola bars that we had purchased only moments before.  Norman most gratefully accepted them, a gift from one man to another.  Mike Renfro is just like that.  Norman Horn?  Well, he's just like that too.

Kansas, my home state, he is coming your way so very soon.  Please dear friends as you see him walking along the roadway, remember him and know that he is a good man, a decent human being who is out there doing what he can to help people become aware that way too many kids in this country of ours will never grow into adulthood.  Their lives will be lost to cancer and that's about as sad as one can imagine.  If you are a Kansan or heck even know one and would like to help in any way as he sojourns through the Sunflower State, please email me and let me know.  Thanks to the folks who have already said they would provide lodging if it is needed.  I will pass all the information on to Norman. 

Well, the dawn is soon to break here over the mountains and it is time to begin this new day that we have all been given.  My hope and prayer is that somehow or another we can all go out the front doors of our homes this morning and find the destiny that awaits us.  Keep your eyes and your hearts open.  Let your mind be ready to accept every blessing there is out there, each opportunity to make a difference.  You say you'd never be able to walk 3,000 miles across the country?  That's ok because neither would I and that's why I am thankful that young men like Norman Horn can and do.  But I tell you my dear friends, some of the greatest of chances we have to make a positive impact upon this world are most often right under our noses all along.  Look around you today and see if you can find them.  They are waiting for you and for me too.  It does not matter where you start as long as you do :)

The finest man I ever knew lost his life to cancer at age 59.  He's my dad.  Later on this year I will turn 59 as well.  Perhaps this is a reason why Norman's cause is so very meaningful and important to me.  Cancer, whether it affects the very young or any other age, is such a devastating disease to endure.

 The sign that Norman will see when he crosses over from Colorado into the great state of Kansas near the tiny little spot called "Coolidge".  Kansas, please wrap your arms around him and take good care of him along the way.  Your lives will be blessed for so doing.