The accident. The 12,500 volts of electricity shooting through his body. The three amputations. Nicole Mortimer figures she’s heard her dad’s testimonial enough — more than a thousand times by her count — that she could recite it detail by detail. So when Bob Mortimer is on stage, she doesn’t watch him. She watches the crowd.
“I like to see the look on people’s faces,” said Nicole, a 19-year-old Northwest University student. “You can see … this is a pivotal moment in their lives and that something in what my dad is saying is going to help them change.”
What she sees is hope.
An accident 32 years ago left Mortimer without his legs and his left arm. But his circumstances haven’t kept him from his mission: delivering hope to whoever will take time to listen.
Starting May 17, Bob Mortimer and his family will take their message on the road. For four months, the Mortimers plan to pedal from Gig Harbor 3,900 miles to New York City, stopping at churches, schools and community centers to share their story. The family plans to finish on Sept. 11 at the Statue of Liberty.
Mortimer’s wife, Darla, and their three children — Nicole, Grant, 15, and Chanel, 10 — will ride bikes. He will handcycle on a three-wheel bike designed for a person with two arms.
“Anything a person can do with two arms, I can do half as well with one arm,” Mortimer said.
The family plans to average 40 miles a day and will travel with a two-person support team: Mortimer’s sister, Jeanne Oesch of Puyallup, and her husband, Don, will drive a truck and trailer along the route.
Mortimer estimates the project will cost about $35,000. The family has been raising money for months while Grant and Chanel, both home-schooled, crammed to finish classes a month early.
They say the work will be worth it to spread their message.
“We have a simple message,” Mortimer said. “You can find hope in Christ, and you can do something with that hope.”
The accident
If it weren’t for the accident, Mortimer, 53, figures he’d still work at the sawmill in Hoquiam where he stacked lumber until he was 21. He enjoyed the job almost as much as his partying lifestyle.
One night in 1976, Mortimer and his brother Tom were driving home from a party in Olympia when Tom took a corner too fast. The vehicle hit a power pole and slid down an embankment. Neither was injured.
But when Bob walked back up to the road in the dark, he couldn’t see the downed power lines. His left arm touched the lines, and 12,500 volts of electricity ripped through his body.
The next thing Mortimer remembers is waking up in Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center and signing a release so doctors could amputate his arm. His right leg went two weeks later, and a couple of months later his left leg was removed.
Mortimer also needed skin grafts on the front of his body. During six months in the hospital, he endured 12 surgeries.
The real recovery
But Mortimer refused to change his lifestyle.
For four years after the accident, he still drank beer and smoked pot.
“I was trying to deal with the pain of being a triple amputee,” he said.
Then, at age 25, Mortimer met Darla Hollis, who was baby-sitting for his sister.
The two quickly developed a strong friendship.
“She said, ‘Bob you have problems, and it has nothing to do with your missing limbs,’” Mortimer said.
On Nov. 16, 1980, Darla took Bob to Auburn Calvary Temple.
“He felt like I’d talked to the pastor because he felt like he was talking directly to him,” Darla Mortimer said. “The sermon was about how God accepts us the way we are.”
Mortimer left the church with the feeling he tries to instill today with his ministry: “I discovered hope,” he said. “And when I surrendered my life to hope in Christ I also had courage.”
With that courage, Mortimer changed his life. He hasn’t touched drugs or alcohol since 1980. He and Darla got married in June 1981. Not long after, friends started asking Mortimer to share his story publicly.
Bob had taken a job as a tax preparer but eventually realized that his calling was to deliver hope.
In 1989, the couple started Bob Mortimer Motivational Ministries. Since then Mortimer has shared his message in Germany, Ecuador and hundreds of other locations.
“I’ve done more good and led a fuller life without my limbs than I might have with limbs,” he said. “God did not cause me to crash. He is a God of free will. I made the choices that put me in that situation. When I chose him, he turned a negative into something special.”
Mortimer says his courage keeps growing.
“I put away the alcohol, and that gave me the courage to get married,” Mortimer said. “And that gave me the courage to be a father. And now it’s 2008 and I have enough nerve to say, ‘Why not pedal across America with one arm?’”
The mission
Mortimer has lined up 15 speaking engagements along the route so far.
“As easy as it would be, we’re careful not to take on a cause with this ride,” Mortimer said. “This ride is about hope and courage. No matter the struggle, it can be faced.”
Mortimer says the biggest struggle on the ride will be the mountainous roads of Montana. But if their mission isn’t enough to keep the Mortimers going, they figure the people they meet along the way will provide plenty of motivation.
“I don’t want people to see this as the ride of a man with one arm,” Mortimer said. “I want them to see a man who is leading his family across the country who just happens to have one arm.
“It’s not a matter of whether you have legs or not. You can face your challenges and have a successful life no matter what. Even if it’s just one person, I hope somebody sees us and gets the courage to step up, take on their great challenges and move forward with their life.”
Journey of Hope
Start: May 17, Gig Harbor
Finish: Sept. 11, New York City
Miles: 3,900
Riders:
n Bob Mortimer, 53, motivational speaker
n Darla Mortimer, 47, homemaker
n Nicole Mortimer, 19, Northwest University student
n Grant Mortimer, 15, home school student
n Chanel Mortimer, 10, home school student
Nicole will cut her ride short in August to return to school. Chanel plans to ride 10 miles per day.
Cost: About $35,000
Donations: hcjourney.org
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