Everybody is special

the long version

By an accident of birth, Gary Mann was born into what Ferrol Sams in his foreword calls "a most horrible garden of the witches." It is called cerebral palsy. But also by an accident of birth, Gary was born into a family that refused to be defeated even by such a "horrible garden of witches." In time Gary claimed for himself that refusal to be defeated by an accident of birth. It has been and still is a struggle - life that refuses to be defeated by the accidents that happen and refuses to give in to those accidents usually is a struggle. But out of that struggle has emerged a very special person, special not because of an accident of birth, but because of who he is by the grace of God, by the love of family and friends, and by his own special faith, hope, and dogged determination. . Everybody is special. Gary Mann is living, vital, and by no means accidental proof of that.