‘Tennis is the best medicine’ for disabled player

STANWOOD — Life has often been difficult for Phat (Peter) Mai.

From his childhood in war-torn Vietnam, to his years of military service at the height of the Vietnam War, to the separation from his family following a later move to the United States, to the horrific trucking accident that cost him both legs, Mai has endured more than his share of anguish and hardship.

But through it all, this remarkable man has always thought of others first. So when friends at the Resilience Fitness health club in Stanwood proposed a benefit tennis tournament with proceeds to buy a new wheelchair for Mai, he initially balked.

“(The offer) was very nice, but I didn’t think I deserved something like that,” said the 58-year-old Mai, an avid wheelchair tennis player who otherwise walks on artificial legs. “I thought it was too much. I thought, ‘I’m OK in my chair.’”

It took some persuasive arguments to change his mind.

“This wasn’t a charity tournament,” explained Gary Reid, the club’s tennis director. “This was friends wanting to do something for a friend.

“Peter is very giving and he’s helped out a number of other people. So when he said, ‘I just don’t feel right,’ I said, ‘Peter, we want to do for you what you do for other people.’”

The event was held last month and raised $7,000 toward a new wheelchair for Mai, who is a nationally ranked wheelchair player by the International Tennis Federation despite the use of an aging chair donated to him years ago.

The generosity of his fellow club members amazed Mai. “I can’t believe it,” he admitted.

Mai was born in what was then South Vietnam in 1953. The country was ravaged by civil war throughout his childhood, and he would later serve four years in the South Vietnamese navy until the end of the war in 1975.

He then came to the United States and eventually settled in Houston, where he married, had a daughter, and started a trucking business. Life was on the upswing until the summer of 2001 when he was gravely injured in an accident while driving a tanker truck.

To this day Mai is unsure what caused the accident or exactly what happened to him. He was unconsciousness for 10 days, but when he finally awoke he had lost both lower legs (infections led to more surgeries and today his right leg ends just below the knee and his left leg just above the knee).

Lying for weeks in a hospital room with medical equipment and connecting tubes and wires, he was understandably distraught. One night the despondency became so overwhelming “I was going to unplug everything,” he said. “So they tied me up.”

Two things gave him the resolve to go forward. One was the events of Sept. 11, 2001, which occurred just a few weeks after his accident. Watching the national tragedy on a television in his hospital room, “I thought, ‘OK, I’m still luckier than other people.’ So I said (to the doctors), ‘I’m OK, you can let me go.’”

The other was tennis. Mai was interested in the game as a boy, “but in my country tennis was for the high class.” Even after coming to the United States, he played very little before his accident.

Afterward, though, it became beneficial to both his physical and emotional health.

“For someone in a wheelchair, tennis is the best medicine for your life,” he said. “If you don’t have something to do with your time, that can be tough. For me being in a wheelchair, without tennis, I don’t know what my life would be.

“It helps a lot. When you come in and play, your mind clears out. No depression.”

Mai, who moved with his wife Trisha to Stanwood in 2005 to be near her family (some relatives are in Mount Vernon, others in Canada), began playing regularly at Resilience Fitness. He swings the racquet with his right hand and uses his left hand to maneuver his chair. Wheelchair players are allowed two bounces instead of one before a return shot which gives him time to cover most of the court. And his stroke is smooth and consistently accurate.

Reid was once a competitive player, but was away from the game for several years. “So when I joined the club about four years ago, Peter was the first guy I played with,” he said. “And he ran me all over the court.”

It was, Reid admitted with a chuckle, “a big eye-opener. I went home sore and all beat up, and the next day when I was trying to heal my wounds he was out here wheeling around and playing.”

But in addition to being a skilled player, Mai is a valued friend to many club members.

“He’s in a wheelchair,” Reid said, “but we don’t realize it. He’s one of us. He’s just a very well-liked person. He’ll hit with anybody and everybody, from the lowest level player to the top level player. And his outlook on life is very uplifting.”

Mai enjoys competing in wheelchair tournaments, but travel expenses generally limit him to events within a reasonable driving distance. Otherwise he is at the club three or four days a week, looking for a game of singles or doubles, and encouraging everyone with his kind words and buoyant spirit.

“Tennis is a sport for a lifetime,” he said. “Some of the people I play with (at the club) are 70, 80 years old, but every day they enjoy it. Without tennis, I don’t know, maybe they’d sit home. So it keeps you young and smiling all the time.

“And if somebody needs to learn to play, I’m here. I can tell them how good tennis has been for me.”