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Back in June, 1976, after he had been honorably discharged from the U.S. Army, Fred Meyling had a terrible accident. He fell from a roof and broke his back. The resultant spinal cord injury left him in a wheelchair with a disability. Following the injury, he moved with his wife and three daughters back to California, hoping to find better weather for recovery. After several years of medical treatment and intense physical therapy, Fred Meyling was once again able to walk and he believed he had largely been cured, but in 1984, he relapsed when he moving an empty plastic trash can and made a twisting motion that hurt his back again and put him back in the hospital for several months.
One thing his injuries made clear to Fred Meyling, however, was that having a disability was hard. It was difficult to find work, in part because employers too often assumed that someone in a wheelchair was incapable of doing most jobs. The rejection he faced was very painful and it motivated him to start several small businesses just to make ends meet. For more than 30 years now, Fred Meyling has chosen to work with non-profit groups and he eventually started a Handicap Services Department at Sun n Fun, where he also fulfilled one of his greatest dreams, which was to fly. As a volunteer with Sun n Fun, he could fly many types of planes. Fred Meyling also has sailed both the west and east coasts of the United States because he loves being on the water. In fact, some of his best times came when he lived on a boat and he hopes to do so again, since he was diagnosed with Hemochromatosis, and the treatment works better at sea level. Comments are closed.
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