The Difference

Writing has long been a part of my life and while for several decades I let that passion fester, my mind continued to function in much the same way that I would assume a writer's would. Maybe I am shamelessly humble, or probably lack the confidence that a true writer feels.
There it is right there...a true writer.
While I treat this as more of a hobby, mostly due to the fact that the real world is constantly in the way, this is truly my calling. Granted, the writing has been more about the quick gratification, the personal high that comes from another successful blog posting or magazine submission. I never intended for it to touch the lives of others. My recent past however shows quite the opposite. On a Monday morning, facing the beginning of another lackluster work week, this Letter to the Editor @ Forest Hills Celebrity & Entertainment found its way to my inbox.

Dear Joe,
I am a staff member of St. John's Bread & Life Program. I have never written a letter to the editor before but felt I wanted to tell you how much reading “Just One Life” meant to me. Mr. Mortensen did not write with fonts but with chords of his heart. Having lost two very dear friends this past year, reading the article and the words of Lynda Dobbin-Turner’s songs spoke to my grief and healing. They were inspiring. I appreciate the articles appearing in your magazine. Please know how much they mean to the community – and not just in Forest Hills or Astoria. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Rita Marie Trucios
Director Social Service
St. John's Bread & Life Program

The article she mentions was a labor of love for me, opening up a part of myself that I did not know existed. The woman I wrote about is someone I have never met in person. As a blogger, I often find myself looking for ways to draw more traffic to this site. Selfishly, while perusing the sites of blogger's like myself in an effort to make them aware of my own existence, I stumbled upon the world of Lynda Dobbin Turner. As a big city guy living and working in the metropolitan area, I immediately came to the conclusion that here was a simple country person living a simple country lifestyle. What I found however was inspiration and someone who is far stronger than I could ever imagine myself to be. What follows is my 2009 holiday submission to Forest Hills Celebrity & Entertainment. With no space limitations, I have chosen to include several more pictures which did not appear in the original layout for the magazine.
I am proud,
I am humbled,
I am speechless.
I made a difference.
- "Morty."




“We got a lovely skiff of snow last night which will make a nice quiet day for Shane and me to regroup by the fireplace and get grounded again. Tonight, we're planning to put up our Christmas tree. Maybe that will help fire up the spirit of the season for me.”

I met Lynda Dobbin-Turner in November of 2008, the chance crossing of our paths purely by circumstance. Worlds apart, we have little in common beyond our affinity for country music and our passion for writing, she a songwriter, me…let’s just say I still consider myself in the category of aspiring. While we have never met in the conventional sense, I have found in this remarkable woman a deep sense of inspiration that has reached out across the many, many miles via the World Wide Web and touched my soul.

“It's hunting season around here again. A calf was accidentally shot in our west pasture. Before we could dispose of the remains, a group of Bald Eagles found them. They are awe inspiring in their majesty. Even amid the frustration of needless loss, we are blessed to be living in a place that gives us such beauty in exchange.”

Lavenham, located in the Canadian province of Manitoba is a tiny hamlet with a population of only 50. Microscopic, by borough of Queens standards, it marks the furthest I have been from home while seated at my PC. The incessant pattern of controlled chaos taking place outside my Mid-Manhattan office window infringes upon the landscape she has painted, so openly shared for the world to see via her blog. At a glance, this brief glimpse into a paradise imagined by most, only through the world of National Geographic may seem a simpler way of life, but it is not without its share of hardships. Following the release of her first CD in 2006, the culmination of a thirty-year dream, Lynda Dobbin-Turner knew immediately that it would not be a once in a lifetime event. Caring for a son afflicted with Cerebral Palsy however, would always be her main priority. Shane’s early diagnosis meant that he would never do many of the things that a normally developing child would, but with fierce determination and an undying spirit, Lynda made sure that he would live a life full of love, laughter and adventure. By the age of 16, he had dipped his toes in two oceans, sped on an airboat through the Everglades, ridden horses, snowmobiles, ATV’s and roller coasters. The staff and students of the local elementary and middle schools welcomed Shane openly.
“There were certainly bumps along the way, anonymous letters that pierced the spirit but the effort paid off and I think it was a shining example of what Inclusion can look like”
Shane turned 17 on January 18th, while remarkably, Lynda had a dozen songs nearly completed for her next CD, which would continue along the lines of its predecessor, offering further insight into Canada’s prairie province, and a lighthearted look at what makes this singer songwriter tick. Whether dreaming of a place near the ocean that allows her to “put her gifts in motion”, or looking back at the years of growing pains and teen angst: “If I could write a letter to that girl back then, I’d tell her it’ll be alright,” or the woman over 40, convinced that the inability to make up her mind is due simply to the onset of Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder (AAAD), we find an individual who has lost neither her resolve nor sense of humor in light of the monumental struggles faced in raising a terminally ill child. I grew excited as her second musical outing began to take shape. We would correspond briefly when time allowed, me anxious to learn more about her real “Little House on the Prairie,” while offering my own whimsical thoughts on life in the big city.

“I watched the sun rise up this morning, just like it did yesterday.
It’s funny how so much goes on the same, when everything has changed.
Did I not tell you all I should have; I hope you read between the lines.
We would have done more if we could have, but we just ran out of time.”
- Won’t Say Goodbye (From the CD “Just One Life”)

My world stopped briefly one dreary March afternoon when I checked her blog on a whim. I stared in stunned silence at a picture of the smiling child she had strived so hard for, a boy who had known little of boundaries, because she refused to acknowledge them, a young man who had seen and accomplished more in his brief existence than most ever will. For the first time in my life, I wept for someone so far away, someone I had never met.
In June, still devastated from her loss, Lynda returned to the studio with new songs that surfaced in working through the pain of that loss.

“If you’ll just look inside, soon you’ll realize,
There’s a fire that these struggles cannot kill.
See my heart, see my spirit, see the light that shines in me
See the love I could offer, and the friend that I could be…”
- When You Look at Me (Shane’s Song)

“I’ve seen the difference that a commitment to inclusion made not only in Shane’s life, but in the lives of all the other students he connected with. “Just One Life”∗ is a tribute to the difference that just one life can make.”

Last year I brought attention to the East Coast Car Association raising money for children diagnosed with long-term illnesses in our area. I have witnessed both here and afar the difference that everyday people can make in challenged lives. Maybe by simply using this gift I have been given, the gift to write, I can touch others to do the very same.