Portland Observer May 21, 1981 Page 7
When love moves mountains
By Kathryn Hall Bogle
How to learn, earn, and indulge
in pursuits that meant enjoying life
and yet give Keary what he needed
became of paramount consideration
for '.he Johnsons.
Rose Marie,beyond perform ing
her role as a housewife and mother,
yearned to use her tra in in g and
background as a pianist She also
harbored an a m b itio n to teach
school someday.
E arl, the father and essential
breadwinner fo r his fa m ily, loved
the out o f doors and active sports.
To hike and to camp were E a rl’ s
fa vo rite ways to spend holidays
from his work as a Portland police
man.
Both husband and wife enjoyed
an active church life. Rather than to
be engulfed by anguish and inac
tio n , the Johnsons agreed to set
their sights on attainm ent and ac
complishment.
The family began to camp in the
many beautiful spots o f Oregon and
Idaho. They back-packed with Earl
carrying Keary in a special pack on
his own back - once for 20 miles to a
campsite in the Wallowa mountains
and out again on the return trip.
On these trips Keary has learned
as well as Keith, what it means to be
trapped inside a tent while the rain
pours down in buckets outside.
They know the th rill ol a tug on a
fishing line cast in a m ountain
stream and they have felt the nip of
frost bite in a mountain camp in the
m iddle o f August. They have sat
KEITH AND KEARY JOHNSON
together in a rubber float happily
bouncing on the icy waters o f Lake
Okanagan in B ritish C olum bia.
work at M onm outh was a nightly
Keary’ s wheelchair went along with
him on a trip the fa m ily took
routine a fte r M rs. Johnson’ s
through the Canadian Rockies.
daytime duties as a teacher. Later
Mrs. Johnson transferred to Lewis
Both boys have ridden horseback
and Clark college.
w ith Keary held in the saddle in
fro n t o f his dad, and they have
Odd moments were used for
study. “ I studied while I ironed,”
traveled by train to visit paternal
Mrs. Johnson said. “ I had notes
grandparents in Pittsburgh. Each
summer for 20 years since they were
and books everywhere - in my
five years o ld , the boys have
purse, on the TV, at lunchtime, cer
enrolled at the Lakeside camp o f the
tainly on weekends and even at the
Easter Seal Summer Camp in
hospital when my husband became
Oregon.
ill. I received my masters degree in
education from Lewis and Clark in
1979.
As a teenager Keith was
graduated from Clackamas high
school and later attended a local
college, and kept being best friends
with Keary. Keith taught Keary how
to play Scrabble and how to get
sound out o f a guitar. The brothers
developed their own private “ in ”
jokes that only they could ap
preciate.
Keith is now 6’ tall, weighs 170 lbs
- a size to match his father and, like
his father, Keith enjoys active
sports - especially cross country run
ning.
During E arl’ s recuperation from
periocarditis, he enrolled at P ort
EARL ft ROSE MARIE JOHNSON
land C om m unity College as a
nursing
student. He successfully
As the boys grew older Rose
completed his courses, passed the
Marie grew anxious to complete her
state board exam ination fo r his
studies for a college degree in Music
profession. He is now a graduate
and Education. Earl worked nights
R.N., but he has rejoined the Port
to leave his days free to care for
land Police Department as a
Keary and the extended fam ily p it
sergeant since his health has retur
ched in for unscheduled hours when
ned.
they might help.
Frankly, this is a story about love
in one man’ s fam ily. It is also a
story o f the determ ination and
im agination o f a special pair o f
young parents who took charge of
their lives and molded them into the
shape they wanted.
It all blossomed with the birth of
two infants, the couple’s twin boys,
25 years ago.
The twins, Ketih and Keary, were
born to Rose Marie and Earl John
son who anticipated the birth with
happiness and high expectations.
The babies were carried to full term
and all seemed well.
At the hospital Keith came first,
healthy and strong and demanding.
Six minutes later his brother Keary
was born, small and frail and need
ing the benign enclosure o f an in
cubator after his traumatic breech
birth.
In due time Keary was released
from the hospital nursery to join his
eager parents at home.
“ Earl and I were anxious to have
both our boys w ith us at hom e,’ ’
related Mrs. Johnson as she thought
of the early weeks at home with the
twins. “ Their father was a big help
right from the s ta rt,” she said.
" E a r l would bathe the babies,
change diapers or feed them -
whatever was needed.
"W e watched them grow and
develop, but we saw that Keith was
strong and able to lift his head and
turn over long before Keary could
manage. It was weeks before the
pediatrician w ould confirm my
suspicions about Keary’s muscular
development. Finally we were told
the diagnosis. Keary, they said, was
a cerebral palsy patient.
“ Our baby would never be able to
sit up alone, would never run and
play w ith his brother, and, quite
possibly, would never have normal
speech. He would always need
specialized care just to live, they
told us.
“ Counsellors suggested, after a
while, that we look for a place for
Keary to live apart from the family.
We took a look at some o f the
places available twenty years ago for
a child with Cerebral Palsy, and we
shrank from making a choice.
“ We knew that we could give our
child much more than any o f these
places could o ffe r. We were his
family and if his life were to be d if
ficult, we wanted to fortify him with
our love.
“ A social worker asked us if we
had thought o f Keith. We had. We
were Keith’s parents, too. We want
ed, with all our hearts, to give both
our children a happy normal child
hood.”
C ontinuing her account, Mrs.
Johnson said, “ We enrolled Keary
in a recommended program at Crip
pled C hildrens’ D ivision up on
Marquam H ill, and decided to
settle in at making ourselves into a
real fam ily - working together for
the best benefit for each o f us.”
P eriodically the young couple
looked at the reality o f the fam ily
situation adding the assessment o f
their own personal hopes fo r the
Applying herself. Rose Marie was
future.
In their m id-twenties, the twins
graduated by P ortland State U n
At age four, Keary could neither
have
decided to leave the fa m ily
iversity in 1969. Im m ediately she
walk nor sit up w ithout propping.
nest. Keith is working as a machine
began teaching school at Forest
He could not feed himself and had
operator at a manufacturing plant
H ills elementary school in Lake
to have small quantities o f food fed
and he has found an apartment near
Oswego. Currently she is rounding
to him by spoon six times a day.
his work to his liking.
out her I Ith year there.
Sight in one eye was seriously affec
Keary? A ll the fam ily approved
Keary grew to understand the
ted. Speech remained beyond
o f his selection o f a group home that
valuable use o f books. Keith read to
Keary’ s a bility and he could make
will provide permanent care for him
him daily and together they visited
him self understood only by ap
in case his parents cannot be
the public libraries. Keary learned to
proximate sounds.
available to m aintain the level o f
use a pointer strapped to his hand to
On the plus side Keary showed a indicate his needs and his prefe
care Keary will require the rest o f his
high quotient o f intelligence and his
life.
rences by pointing to pictures on a
big ready smile showed his joy in
Keary’ s new living quarters, at an
small chart constructed for this pur
participating in life around him. In
Oregon beach resort, allow him to
pose.
stant communication came through
live in an environment he loves and
Rose M arie could count o n ' the program provides skilled
his eyes or a shake o f his head.'
Keary’ s cooperation when next she medical and nursing care. There is
Keith, the balance wheel, led the
decided to work toward a masters
norm al life of a happy four-year
freedom to visit in P ortland w ith
degree. He sat p a tiently in his
old. With parental encouragement,
family and friends and they in turn
wheelchair beside his mother in the
Keith brought much o f his world to
may visit Keary as often as they like.
college classrooms when " th e y ”
his brother. Soon, o f course, Keith
W ith his new friends Keary has
went to Oregon College o f already made a plane trip to Disney
would enter school where Keary
Education in M onm outh. Class land.
could not go.
City youth jobs available
Portland M ayor Frank Ivancie
has announced the creation o f a
summer youth clean up program
operated by the City o f Portland in
cooperation w ith the Portland
Public Schools.
Mayor Ivancie first suggested the
program in early A p ril. It is
designed to hire 500 high school
students, age 14 or older, for up to
two weeks each to help clean up
Portland neighborhoods.
On the C ity level, the program
w ill be supervised by the D epart
ment o f Public W orks, under
Com m issioner M ike Lindberg,
Portland Public Schools announced
the creation o f this program and the
application procedure to its high
school students last week.
“ This program w ill help our un
employed young people and Port
landers all across the city ,” Mayor
Ivancie said. “ It shows how d if
ferent government can work
together to m aintain P o rtla n d ’ s
livability.”
Work begins on June 15th and the
program will run for ten weeks.
Workers will be paid $3.50 an hour.
'Established 1966 with over 170
offices coast to coast."
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Truly fortified with the love o f a
close knit fam ily since their birth,
the twins are free to develop their
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o f the Johnson home are always
open for their children.
Love can move mountains. One
man’s family believes this.
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