The Goldthwaite Eagle (Goldthwaite, Tex.), Vol. 108, No. 34, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 3, 2004 Page: 14 of 18
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Page 14 - The Goldthwaite Eagle-Mullin Enterprise - Wednesday, Mar. 3,2004
The fight of his life
A hometown hero makes his most difficult stand Charlie grew up with football, forti-
tude, fun, but priorities change
(Editor’s Note: The following scream through several times a
was printed in The Dallas Mom- day but no longer stop. Most of
ing News on Sunday, February the 175 people still living in Mul-
22, 2004. It is about Charlie lin are natives whose families
Smith of Mullin who has Lou have been in the town and the
Gehrig’s disease. A special ac- hilly country around it for many
count has been set up at Mills generations. A lot of them are kin.
County State Bank in Goldth- “We rode the dirt roads,” says
waite to help with this young Charlie’s cousin and best friend,
couple’s expenses. Anyone wish- Travis Wilson. “You can go mil-
ing to help may send their dona- lions of miles in this county and
tions to Charlie Smith Medical never touch pavement. As soon
Fund,MCSB, PQBox309, Gold- as we’d get out of school until
thwaite, TX 76844.) way up in the morning, if we
wasn’t footballing on Friday
By BRYAN WOOLLEY Staff night, we was on the roads.
Writer "We rode 600 and 700 miies a
Published February 22, 2004 * night sometimes, raising Cain
Reprinted with the permission of and never touching pavement.
Dallas Morning News We’d chase down a coon and skin
MULLIN, Texas - People talk- it. We’d build afire. We’d go fish-
ing about Charlie Smith always ing in the bayou. Sometimes we’d
use the same words. Tough, drink a little beer. We had a lot of
Strong. Dependable. Loyal, fun."
Proud. Stubborn. "Charlie's a Charlie, Travis says, was the
mountain of a man,” says his leader of the group.
stepfather-in-law, Marshall “He’s natural-born to it. You
Pyburn. “There’s nothing he could bring people in from nine
couldn’t do or accomplish. Two different states and put them in a
years ago, he could whip a griz- bunch, and Charlie would get in
zly bear.”Charlie is 6 feet 4 and the middle of them and he would
good-looking. His dark eyes are listen to them and he would make
keen and bright. They engage the stuff work. He's just like that,"
attention of anyone in his com- Travis says.
pany. Two years ago, he weighed Lessons of hard work
about 240 pounds. He was 25 For Charlie and Travis, living
years old then. the full life also meant working.
At Mullin High School, where Hard manual labor was expected
he graduated in 1996, Charlie was in Mullin. It was part of being a
Mr. Everything: quarterback of man
the school’s district champion “Our dads and our uncles, they
six-map football team, most valu- wouid come get us,” Travis says,
able player, homecoming king "One day we’d be building fence,
three years running, Christmas The next morning we’d be out
prince, basketball and track star, here gathering cows and penning
He has boxes full of medals and bulls. The next day after that,
ribbons and certificates and somebody else would gather us
newspaper clippings. He made up and take us to a job some-
pretty good grades. .where. Charlie and me, we was
“He was a smart kid,” says always working. If we wasn’t
Marlene Shelton, the Mullin riding tractors, we was hauling
school superintendent in those hay or picking up rocks. We
days. “But like a lot of other boys, chased down an emu that got out
he probably could have done of a man’s pasture. If somebody
more if he’d wanted to.” wasn’t getting hurt or bleeding,
As its motto, Charlie s class we wasn’t having no fun.”
chose: “Living life to the fullest. Charlie’s parents, Jim and
Everybody says that’s what Char- Jennetta, traveled the rodeo cir-
lie always did. It required inge- cuit. She was a champion barrel
nuity. - ’ - 1 • racer. He was a pick-up man for
a In Mills County about 30 miles the bronc riders. They divorced
south of Comanche, Mullin is one about the time Charlie graduated,
of those dried-up little railroad Jennetta remarried and moved
towns that dot the Texas land- away from Mullin. Jim drives a
scape. It peaked around 1910, “bull wagon,” hauling cattle, and
when its population was 750. is on the road nearly all the time.
Cotton used to be the cash crop. Once when Charlie was a little
Now it’s livestock. Trains still
boy, Jim tied his spurs together
with baling wire under the belly
of a calf. “You’re going to stay
on him until you break him!” he
said. Later, when Charlie was a
football star, his father roamed
the sidelines at the games. “You
damn pansies!” he would shout.
“You look like cheerleaders out
there!”
“The older men, they made us
tough,” Travis says. "They'd say,
‘Don’t baby them boys around.
If they’re hurt, get them fixed up
and make them go on.’ That's the
way it was. If you was really hurt,
you was hurt. But if you was just
banged up a little bit, you’d bet-
ter get up and go on. The worst
thing in the world was disap-
pointing your old man.”
Tears are in Travis’ eyes now.
“Charlie’s a good man,” he says.
“He’s stubborn. He’ll fight it out.
He ain’t scared of it.”
What was happening?
One day in the spring of 2002,
Charlie stepped out of the trac-
tor-trailer rig he was driving for
Mills County Stone Co. and
slipped and fell on his back.
Those who saw him laughed
about it. But during the follow-
ing weeks, Randy Moore, a driver
who worked with Charlie, began
to notice something strange.
“Whenever Charlie would go
to turn around, he would fall,”
Randy says. “I just thought it was
a little clumsiness. Well, it got to
where when he set down, his leg
would jump up and down, just
quiver and move.”
Charlie’s cousin Travis saw
differences, too. “There was
something eerie about him when
he would get out of his truck,” he
says. “He was kind of stum-
bling.” He once saw Charlie fall,
too.
“I never did say nothing. Used
to, when Charlie and me would
see each other, we would lock
horns, you know, kind of fight-
ing. He would throw me around
like a rag doll. He got to where
he wouldn’t do that anymore. He
would just kind of back away. He
wasn’t as stout as he used to be.
But if he wanted me to know, he
would tell me.
“And then he did. He told me
something was wrong with him
and he didn't know what it was.”
In his 25 years, Charlie had
been to a doctor twice: once when
he cut his lip on an old trash can,
Chere's so much bad in the best of us,
And so much good in the worst of us,
Chat it doesn't behoof
Co talk about tne re
US,
Of US.
Anon.
Happy Days
Camar Griffin
VOTE
KERI REYNOLDS ROBERTS
Democratic Candidate for MILLS COUNTY ATTORNEY
March 9,2004
To the citizens of Mills County:
As the election draws near, I have had the opportunity
to visit with many of you. To those who I have not, I look
forward to meeting you. If time or chance does not allow
me to talk to you before the election, please accept this as
my personal request for your vote.
I have been blessed to be able to come home to live,
work and raise a family, and would feel honored to serve
my community as your County Attorney. J
and when he blew out his knee in
a football game and rode to a hos-
pital in an ambulance. '
Now he was married to Remy,
a girl from Comanche whom he
had dated since he was 18 and she
was 15. They lived in the small
frame house in Mullin where
Charlie grew up, a few blocks
from the school where he was a
hero. They had an infant daugh-
ter, Kyra. Remy was pregnant
again. She was worried about
Charlie.
“My back pain really started
progressing, almost like a kidney
hurt,” Charlie says. “Remy made
me go. I went first to a chiroprac-
tor. I thought it might be a
pinched nerve. He took some X-
rays and said he couldn’t do noth-
ing for me. He told me to go see
a neurologist in Abilene. I said, Remy (pictured right), helps Charlie Smith (pictured
I ain t going to do that. Ain t left) to the carat his childhood home in Mullin.
nothing wrong. But slowly and %
surely the pain progressed, and Charlie says, and likes them.
we did go. “That was all they was doing. But Remy, a brunette with
“We went there two or three They run us through like cattle, shoulder-length hair and a nice
months. They ran every kind of And every time I went there, they smile, bears nearly all the load,
test in the world. Drawed blood took money out of what we’ve She’s 23 years old. Kyra is 2
until I thought I’d go dry. They got each month to live on. They years old. Charlie Jr. is only 9
told me it could be tick fever be- was taking nearly half of that.” months, still in diapers. “I’m all
cause we was always down by the . A fund-raiser fish fry in Co- right," Remy says. “I don’t have
river, always out in the woods, manche brought in about $5,000. it that bad.”
Then the doctor said he was go- Charlie and Remy caught up on Travis introduced Charlie and
ing to recommend me to Dallas.” their bills. When Charlie Jr. was Remy long ago, it seems now, at
Too young to be true bornlastMay, they had stem cells a basketball game. They fell for
In October 2002, doctors at the saved from his umbilical cord and each other even though both
University of Texas Southwest- spent $2,500 of the fish fry were dating others at the time,
ern Medical Center in Dallas told money to have them frozen and “Remy’s a good girl,” Travis
Charlie right off that they thought storeci in a facility in California, says. "She hangs in there. She
he had amyotrophic lateral scle- They had heard of stem cell re- takes care of the house and her
rosis, a disease that weakens the search that someday might help kids. She’s always been like one
body’s muscles, then paralyzes victims of ALS and other dis- of the guys, too.”
them, then eventually kills the eases. They hoped the baby’s But weariness tugs at the cor-
victim. In this country it’s com- cells might provide hope for his ners of her eyes and mouth. Her
monly known as Lou Gehrig’s father. parents worry about her.
disease. Among the bad things “The doctors in Dallas told us “Charlie has disintegrated to .
that can happen to people, not they didn’t know nothing about the point where it takes him 10
many are worse. that research,” Charlie says, minutes to walk from his chair
. The disease usually strikes “They said all the Internet stuff to the bedroom,” Marshall
people in their 50s or older. Vic- on it was from over in Europe, Pyburn says. “He may fall once
tims often die within three to five that it’s illegal here because they a week; he may fall every day.
years. Those who go on a respi- were taking cells from aborted He’s bullheaded. He won’t give
rator sometimes live much longer babies. But we took them from up. If it means falling, he’ll fall,
but are paralyzed and often bed- little Charlie’s umbilical cord. He laid 011 the floor once for two
ridden. Cases among young And we thought they might be a hours. He wouldn’t let Remy
people are rare. The younger the possible solution. They might help him up. He told her he
victim is, the faster the disease give me another three years, four would get up on his own. He’s .
progresses. Charlie was 25. odw or five years. You never know.” careful of the children. He still
"They said I was the youngest ! After fouror five trips to Dal- weighsabout 180. If he was to
person they’d diagnosed with las, Charlie and Remy quit going. fall on one of them, it would be
ALS in Dallas,” Charlie says. "They couldn’t understand terrible.
“They said I might have three to why I was so hardheaded,” Char- "I take my hat off to Remy,
six months, maybe a year. They lie says. “But I’d rather sit right She’s my hero. She has stood by
told me I was going to have to here and watch my babies go and Charlie and loved him heart and
have a respirator and a hospital iaugh and have fun and go out- soul. She and Charlie have been
bed. side and watch the dog run through more than 10 people
“My stomach just dropped. I around," he says. “The way I was should have to go through in a
was in awe that they would say raised up, you don’t give up, no lifetime. I keep telling her,
something like that in front of my matter what. And if you don’t let ‘God’s in your pocket. You’ll
wife and kid. It made me ball up something get you, it won’t get come out of this a better person.’
inside. I wanted to ask: ‘Where you.” , I really believe that.”
did you come from, to tell me Memories never fade A matter of pride
how long I’m going to last?’ I Travis Wilson and another high The doctors prescribed
wanted to say: ‘I ain’t going no- school football buddy, Marshall Rilutek for Charlie. It’s the only
where. I’ll be back here in 10 Craker, have stopped by Charlie’s drug that’s supposed to somehow
| years to kick your ass.’” house. They’re talking about the help ALS victims. The cost of the
Soon he had to climb down for old days, the games, the nights prescription was $2,000 a month,
good from the truck he had driven roaming the dirt roads, the huge and Charlie says it “messed with
to Houston and San Antonio and catfish they used to catch out of my heart and gave me kidney
£ Dallas, delivering landscaping Pecan Bayou. cramps.” He never finished the
stone. He went on Social Secu- Charlie is sitting in his big first bottle.
rity, receiving a monthly $700 lounge chair in a corner of the liv- The doctors gave him pre-
[ disability check, and Medicaid. irig room. In the opposite corner, scriptions for painkillers, which
Bills were piling up. “I CNN is flashing on the big TV Charlie doesn’t take. “I’d rather
: couldn’t see going up there and screen, muted. Nobody is watch- feel some pain and deal with it
J spending 200-and-something ing it. Travis and Marshall are and be myself than be all doped
. dollars a pop for ahotel room and making Charlie laugh. He’s en- up," be says. “My old man al-
| then setting in that office for 61/ joying their visit, and joins in ways said, ‘If you ain’t feeling
j 2 hours just so a doctor and a with his own version of their some pain, you ain’t living.’”
bunch of medical students could. common memories. The doctors gave Charlie a
′ parade in and test my reflexes,” His speech is slow and slurred, walker, which he doesn’t use.
His fingers are curled in toward And he turned away a physical
his palms and stiff. He has trouble therapist because, his friends say,
fishing a cigarette out of the pack be didn’t want a stranger to see
on the table beside him. Travis him having trouble getting
flicks the lighter for him. around.
Charlie is telling a couple of “There ate lots of people out
visiting strangers about the foot- there who have it twice as bad
ball team. “We played together as I do," be says. I’m not going
from the fourth grade until we to mope around and feel sorry for
was seniors,” he says. “It was like myself. Don’t ever think you’re
playground football with your at the end of the world. That’s
brothers. Everybody knew what the way I was raised.”
everybody was going to do. Ev- But to his cousin Travis, its
erybody flowed smooth.” all a cruel puzzle. Talking about
Most of his buddies moved Charlie is too hard. He shoves his
away from Mullin after high hat away from his forehead,
school. But Travis lives in “Charlie’s illness is the kind
Zephyr, and Marshall in Santa of thing that ain’t supposed to
Anna, nearby towns. They and a happen here,” he says. You re
few others drop in from time to supposed to grow old here in
time, to chew the fat. Mullin, you know. Most people
“Every other month, we have do."
a houseful two weekends run-
ning,” Charlie says. “Everybody
piles in.” Randy Holland, Quotable Quote
Sincerely,
Keri Reynolds Roberts
Pol. Adv. Pd. for by Normajo Reynolds, Campaign Treasurer
Keri Roberts, husband Britton and son Kody
Charlie’s older truck driver
friend, lives only about a block
away. He’s usually available
when Charlie and Remy need
help.
Remy’s stepfather, Marshall
Pyburn, and her mother, Laquitta,
who is a nurse, are pillars of the
beleaguered young family, even
though they live in Comanche.
They drive to Mullin, do what-
ever they can. Charlie trusts them
Learn to value yourself, which
means: to fight for your happi-
ness.
Ayn Rand
Indian Proverb
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should make friends with the
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Bridges, G. Frank & Bridges, Georgie. The Goldthwaite Eagle (Goldthwaite, Tex.), Vol. 108, No. 34, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 3, 2004, newspaper, March 3, 2004; Goldthwaite, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1659877/m1/14/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Jennie Trent Dew Library.