Clark’s life brought to words by God’s grace
Story by Lynne Phillips The Willard Times-Junction
Clark’s life brought to words by God’s grace
By Lynne Phillips
Times-Junction Staff Reporter
Attitude is everything and the greatest blessing of his life is Jesus Christ.
Forty seven year old David F. Clark was given only a one in one million chance of surviving when he was hit by a speeding car as a, five year old. Brain damaged, suffering from severe dyslexia and various physical ailments he has written a moving account of his life as he struggled to understand what had happened to him.
Today. David shares his incredible childhood struggles in a book titled. "Though I Walk Thru the Valley of the Shadow of Death." He chronicles his life from the tragic accident. the resulting medical problems. his healing at age seven. learning difficulties, teaching himself to read and his college years.
It is a book of encouragement, hope and inspiration, as with God's help he learns to deal with the challenges of living life, fraught with the challenges of dealing with school, depression and the negative effects of dyslexia.
The date July 29, 1965 is the beginning of the story. Five year old David, a bright and independent boy, and like most boys of that age, bound and determined, followed his mother across the street to retrieve a bucket from the ditch. While he had crossed the street many times with his older brother and sisters for tadpoles, this particular dat his mother did not want him crossing the street.
Without her knowledge, young David bravely walked behind her, short little legs pumping to try to keep up. As his mother reached the opposite side of the road, she must have sensed the youngster behind her and turned to see him standing there. Wanting to undo his disobedience, he turned and darted across the street directly into the path of an oncoming car.
The car, exceeding the 35 mile per hour speed limit, rounded a curve and hit David while traveling at 60 mph, sending him to the pavement where he rolled another 30 feet. The vehicle contained a perfect mold of David"s head and right shoulder in the front grill.
A neighbor called for an ambulance, according to David, "I was unconscious, a broken clavicle with the bone protruding through the skin, and my right leg was drawn up to my back."
Arriving at Beyer Memorial Hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan. he underwent a careful exam and full body x-ray. With only a broken shoulder, doctors were amazed the young ,boy's escaped from being crushed.
"I went into surgery where they repaired the broken bone and from there was placed into a pediatric ward." David recalled. "Doctors told my parents I had a one in one million chance of surviving the night:'
Left broken and brain damaged, David said doctors had little expectation he would recover. One year to the day later, David tells of how he was taken to a Christian Missionary Alliance Church in Toledo where he said he was healed. “The difference was as noticeable as night and day, he said.
Back in the 60's, according to David, there wasn't much known g about learning disabilities. and his struggles with his education were just beginning.
In first grade, "I was basically retarded." he said, "I drug my right side, I wore my hair down across
my forehead because it was scarred, and the clothes I wore would also hide scars.
"In the period of time between first and second grade, I was healed."
"Returning to school," he said, "they noticed the difference."
Despite the change brought about by his healing David said, "I still wasn't learning, and it was because I was dyslexic. The dyslexia was caused by the therapy that taught me to use the right the side of my brain, then being healed and going back to using the left side."
At that point David was taken without parental consent by school officials to a hospital where he underwent a battery of tests. "My mother didn't know where I was. My brother and sisters had taken me to school but returned home without me.
"She called the school. and they stalled until the testing was done, and then she was told she could pick me up at Toledo Hospital. That was only the start of it," he shares. "They now had documentation from before and after, and they could see my brain had healed.
"It was decided the problem with my learning disability was my whole memory had been totally lost," David recalled of his life. "They convinced my mom I needed to be in a special school."
Shaking his head, David said he did not go into any detail in his book but that period of time was a very difficult one for him. "My mom had no idea what I went through there," he said. "In order to convince her to place me in the special school, she was told if she didn't agree, I would be placed in a mental institution and my brother and sisters would be put into an orphanage."
Unlike today, being a single mom in 1965 and 1966. "Well, things were very different then than they are now," he said. "Single moms and parents didn't have the kind of authority they do today. But she finally found a lawyer to help.
"He told her that if she got a tutor for me she could actually get me back through the legal process. So I had tutors, tutors that believed the right foods would do the trick, performing calisthenics would help among a number of other things they thought would make me learn," he said shaking his head.
In the second grade, David was told he would never amount to a hill of beans. In the third grade, it was I wouldn't make it to the sixth grade. At the beginning of the sixth grade they said well, he might make to high school, but he'll never make it to college."
At the end of the sixth grade someone at Bowling Green University had taken an interest in David’s situation, “He was doing

his dissertation about me," he said. "I went to Bowling Green where they did tests on me. It was there they found I was dyslexic and were able to tell me how to help myself."
It was here for the first time in his young life David was given the gift of hope. "They told me not only could I go on to high school but I could go on to college. It was the first time I had been given any hope by an educator."
David took the initiative to teach himself to read at the Mansfield Public Library, and the world turned into a place where all things are possible.
David graduated from Madison Local School District. He then went on to Nyack College where he graduated with a bachelor of science degree in Theology.
David was prompted to begin his book project after his then 17 year old son was injured in a car accident. "We got the call late at night every parent dreads," he said. "He rolled the car. He was life-flighted to Cleveland where we spent three days and three nights in the intensive care waiting room. While we were there, we saw was a lady whose son had been in a car accident and suffered a head injury. The first words we heard her speak to the doctors when they came out to talk with her were, 'is he brain dead’? Those are pretty heavy words to hear from a parent, “he said.
"At the end of our days and nights in the waiting room, I felt led to share my story with her," David recalled. "She thanked me and went in to see her boy. Afterward her family came to me and said 'I don't know what you said to our mom but she was pretty well without hope and whatever you said encouraged her. '"
Later David was encouraged by friends and family to share his story in a book. "I had already most of the research done," he' said. "So then I started contacting publishers, I got a hold of Red Lead Press, and it was published in October 2007.
Today David gives thanks to God, "For without Him, I would not be here to write this book." He also thanks his wife, Becky, who has loved and encouraged him all of their married life, his mother, especially her God-given courage in very difficult times, his brother and sisters and aunts Ruth and Dorothy. He resides near Shenendoah in rural Greenwich.
To purchase his book visit readleadbooks.com, amazon.com, target.com or contact Red Lead Press at 1-800-834-1803 or visit their website at w:ww.redbooks.com. A copy is located at the Crestview School Library and the ICU waiting of Med Central Hospital. You may visit David at authorsden.com, by typing in "David F. Clark."