Storm Stories: Charlie's Victory (Part 1) - Charlie & Lucy Wedemeyer

Dennis & Barbara's Top 25 All-Time Interviews

Storm Stories: Charlie's Victory (Part 1) - Charlie & Lucy Wedemeyer
Storm Stories: Charlie's Victory (Part 2) - Charlie & Lucy Wedemeyer

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript

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Storm Stories: Charlie's Victory

Day 1 of 2

Guest: Lucy and Charlie Wedemeyer

From the series: Storm Stories: Charlie's Victory Part 1

Bob: Lucy Wedemeyer was a young wife, a young mom with two small children. She had married her high school sweetheart, the star of the football team. Things were going perfect for Lucy until one day her husband came home from the doctor.

Lucy: I mean, it was very obvious to me something was really wrong, and when he said that the doctor told him he had this terminal disease, I couldn't say anything. I couldn't even respond. We just stood there kind of clinging to each other.

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Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Thursday, August 7th. Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. How does a marriage survive and stand strong in the midst of storms? Stay tuned.

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And welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us on the Thursday edition. When we began this week, when you told our listeners that the story they were going to hear was one of the top five all-time FamilyLife Today stories, and I think you're right. I think what we've heard already this week has been powerful and profound. But we thought we ought to revisit another one of those top-five moments before the week is over. And so our listeners are going to get to hear another remarkable couple on today's program.

Dennis: A great story of unsurpassing love between a football star and his adoring wife, Charlie and Lucy Wedemeyer tell a story that I think our listeners will never forget. Charlie was a standout high school football star in Hawaii. He ended up getting a scholarship to Michigan State University, where he had never seen a snowflake before being from Hawaii, and there he met Lucy. They were married and not long after that he had become head coach of Los Gatos High School in Northern California in the Bay Area, and it was during that time he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, at least he was told by his doctor that he had months to live.

Bob: And when we sat down and talked to them, it had been years since he had received that diagnosis, and Charlie was in a wheelchair, the only parts of his body that he could move were his lips and his eyes, and that's how he communicated with his wife, Lucy. In fact, our listeners may be able to hear the ventilator that he's on. They won't hear Charlie's voice, but Lucy will be able to share some of his thoughts and some of his words as she reads his lips and as she walks us through this incredible story.

Lucy: Charlie was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The doctors told him at the time of the diagnosis he had maybe a year to live, and Charlie's adding here, "The doctors didn't realize that Dr. Jesus had other plans for me."

Dennis: Well, I want to take you all back to how you met because you met in Hawaii, isn't that correct, where you grew up?

Lucy: Charlie and I met in high school at Punahau Academy on the beautiful island of Oahu under just a gorgeous blue sky and waving palm trees. I mean, just the most romantic place. He had just finished football practice, and I was standing in line at the bookstore – uh-oh, "No, no, no. I was standing in line when I saw this gorgeous blond" – oh I like this – "walking up the steps, and I immediately fell in love." Is that why you ran over to get in line? I see.

[laughter]

Dennis: Well, you, at that time, were a cheerleader, and he was a star football player – the player of the decade in high school?

Lucy: Yes, he was, he was, in the '60s, yes, yes.

Dennis: Well, it was in 1977, after you had been married for 11 years. You'd had a daughter and a son that you were at the chalkboard, and you were having difficulty holding onto a piece of chalk, and at first it didn't seem that it was out of the ordinary that you were having to squeeze the chalk extra hard, but in the weeks that followed instead of two or three fingers you found yourselves really gripping the chalk, and some bad news came your way. Lucy, can you bring us into those first conversations around that?

Lucy: Charlie is saying, "At first I thought it was old football injuries, since I'd had so many." He played not only high school and college but semi-pro there with the Lansing All-Stars for several years. So it wasn't uncommon to think that maybe it was arthritis setting in or – he'd had a multitude of injuries all his career, and it was disconcerting, but Charlie just kind of said, "Oh, well, it's probably, you know, just those old injuries," and we really didn't concern ourselves with it that much at that point in time. And Charlie's saying, "Until it became more difficult for me to button my shirts, to shave, and tie my shoes."

And, actually, what happened was the team doctor noticed some problems and started to ask Charlie and said, "Why don't we go up and have some tests done," and he took us up to Stanford University and ran us through some tests. He said they were basically inconclusive, and we really didn't think a lot about it. It's kind of funny, we, I think, preferred to bury our head in the sand at the time and just assume that it was part of his – part of the old injuries.

Bob: Charlie, did you bring Lucy in? Did you let her know you were having trouble with the chalk and buttoning your shirt?

Lucy: "Oh, yes, in fact, she always had to correct all his math papers for his math students" and do all those things – the fine dexterity things. But, again, we weren't – I don't think we were extremely alarmed, and our family has always been very close. Any of Charlie's football games or basketball games when he was coaching basketball or playing softball. We'd all be together. The children were always there, a part of the scene.

Dennis: Well, that Christmas season, the team doctor, who was a good friend of yours, paid your way back to the islands for all four of you to go back and see your family. You were suspicious that he knew something that he wasn't sharing with you.