Times Picayune: Watch Mark Raymond Jr. roll at the Crescent City Classic and see hope in motion, April 17, 2019
Photo courtesy Crista Rock
From the Times Picayune:
Mark Raymond Jr. never envisioned himself as an inspirational figure, at least not until he was forced to redefine what “never” meant to him.
Never was the word that cleaved his life into two parts — his 27 or so years before July 4, 2016, and the time that has passed since he was told: You will never be able to walk again.
It was the stark finality of the word that weighed on his mind after he shattered his C5 vertebra in an accident on Lake Pontchartrain, leaving him paralyzed. Implicit in the word “never” is the absence of hope. That was not good enough.
Look at him now. His eyes are full of a fire that would not be extinguished. He may not be able to walk now, and he may not ever fully regain that ability, but he’s damn well going to try — and along the way, he’s trying to let everyone else have a little of that hope to hold onto, too.
