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  • Shirley Caudill

    Shirley Caudill

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March 18, 2010

Now they will call him Sergeant Sanders

The Times-Tribune

CORBIN — As most of you know, I am very proud of my handicapped son, Dana who lives on the outskirts of Nashville. He was a premature baby, born with cerebral palsy and once weighed two pounds. He did not walk until he was six years old.

He was not expected to live at all, and it was touch-and-go for awhile. He stayed in an incubator for a long time on life support. He also spent months in Shriner’s Children’s Hospital in Lexington, but went to school in his hospital bed. He wore painful braces and had several surgeries on his legs.

He graduated from Laurel County High School with great grades and even skipped a grade. He ignored the bullies and went on to Eastern Kentucky University. Then he was on his own; he never came back home to London but was on his way to bigger and better things.

Like all my children, he had to go elsewhere to find a good job.

My goal was to make him independent and self sufficient but at 17, that was too soon for me.

He always liked to talk and when I told him at 16 that it was time to get a job, and he landed his first one at WFTG radio. He worked with Carl Keith Greene in about 1979.(unless my memory fails me)

Dana did the news at the classical radio station in Richmond and then went on to work at several jobs in Lexington when finally he got his ideal job as a public servant in Dickson, Tennessee as a 911 dispatcher with the Dickson Police Department.

He has been there nearly 18 years and just last week was promoted to sergeant. Although he is modest, he got a flicker of a smile when I called him “Sgt. Sanders.”

For most of  the last 45 years, it has been my pleasure to work with special needs children in one way or another. After I retired and got a job with the Laurel County Schools, I requested a special needs school bus route. In some small way, I hope that I have brightened their lives just half as much as they have brightened mine.

I want them to realize that they are a valuable part of society and there are many interesting things that they can do. I believed in tough-love for my children, and so far, it has helped them lead successful lives.

Dana has a good life and enjoys his job helping people. He bought himself a condo and a new car. He travels and has many good friends. He enjoys family and they are very proud of him. He is my travel buddy.

He has a good work ethic and went to work even when his leg was broken all to pieces by a drunk driver who had no car insurance. He fell on water and broke his hip, but it was not long until he was back to work.

He never wanted to live on a disability check if he could possible go to work. He enjoys being with people and cheering them up. He has a positive attitude.

If I sound like a mother, oh well. Mothers are like that, aren’t they?

March is his birthday month and this March has brought lots of good things to Sgt. Sanders. He will contemplate the future in Key West on spring break.

When he gets home, he will have to get someone to sew on his sergeant stripes.

Shirley Caudill of London is a former newspaper editor/publisher and longtime freelance columnist. She is a Nashville native who has lived in Kentucky 40 years. She has six children, 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren and is married to a retired Army First Sergeant. She can be reached at gunnstar4912@gmail.com

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