In 2016 my friend Jim Bowers asked me to write a remembrance of the life of Christopher Reeve on what would have been his 64th birthday, and I began wondering what I should say. This year he would have turned 70 had he lived. So much has already been said about his thoughts on his portrayal of Superman, and much has been equally said about his work in spinal cord research. So how do you come up with something fresh and interesting yet original?

For me, it would have to be in the form of a monologue.

I picture myself back in March 2002, when Chris came to the University of Mississippi in Oxford to receive a donation for $85,000 to his research foundation from the school’s fraternities in their annual Charity Bowl. I had been working at Mississippi Public Broadcasting at the time and mentioned that they should travel to Oxford to interview Chris for their program “Conversations”. In the back of my mind I reasoned that it would probably be their only chance to do so. Little did we know at the time it would have been their only chance, a chance soon missed. I didn’t get to go to Oxford that weekend Chris was in Mississippi. I had to go to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for a training conference instead.

But what if I could turn back time and meet my boyhood hero? What would I say to him if I could have met him? Maybe it would go something like this…

“Chris, I just wanted to say thank you for the impact you are making in this world. When you first started playing Superman on screen, you gave hope to the twelve-year-old boy in me and showed me how to grow up, be tall and strong and confident in myself. I was bullied in school, and I made it through. When other guys in my class looked up to people such as Burt Reynolds or Billy Joel or Terry Bradshaw as their role models, you were my role model. I don’t say that in a weird way or anything, but you were confident in yourself, and that’s what I wanted to be.

“And then you became my role model all over again through your injury. I just lost my dad a few weeks ago after a six­-year struggle with strokes and Parkinson’s disease. I had no understanding of what he was going through. All I knew was the toil it took on my mother and me over those years, and I had nothing to relate to. We had become his caregivers.

“Then I saw your determination to fight through your injury, and your hope to give families a chance to reach out for support and encouragement, no matter what the disease or injury. What if my mother falls to strokes or Alzheimer’s disease? What if I should develop type­ 2 diabetes? Families need resources and information on what to do in these things, as much as they can learn.

“So I just wanted to say thank you, from the twelve-year-old boy in me who survived being bullied, and from a surviving caregiver. Keep fighting the good fight. Give voice to all of us.

“Oh, and when do you plan to write another book? I can’t wait to read it!”

That’s very likely what I would have said to him.

Thank you, Chris.

(Screenshot courtesy of CapedWonder.com.)