Faith, humor help Jonesboro man deal with ALS

By Joel Hall

jhall@news-daily.com



Charles Dyer met his wife, Saralyn, in the summer of 1961. He played football and threw the discus and shot-put for Forest Park High School.

He drove a red, 1953 Mercury Monterey 350. It was jacked up in the back and sported baby moon hubcaps.

Saralyn was 17 at the time and went to Hapeville High School. After a few weeks of driving his hot rod past her house, Dyer, then 18, was able to convince her to go on a date with him. They went to a horror triple feature at the Stewart Avenue Drive-In Theater.

“I didn’t want to go [to the theater], but I wanted to date him,” said Saralyn, now 63. They kissed and have been together ever since. They got married three years later and moved out of their parents’ homes and in with each other.

The couple moved to Forest Park and Charles got a job loading and unloading luggage for Delta Air Lines. The day he was hired, Nov. 22, 1963, was the same day John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

“I took any job to get my foot in the door,” said Dyer, 64.

He worked his way up to overhauling sheet metal to eventually become a jet engine inspector in the Boeing 767 shop.

He stayed as long as he could. He retired on Jan. 1, 2002 after he noticed he was slowing down.

“He’s always been agile and strong,” his wife said. “He’d climb up on the roof, paint the house inside out ... he could pick me up ... that was a bit of a feat,” she joked.

“He was limping ... it was hard for him to go up and down the ladders,” she continued. “We knew then that something was amiss.”

In August of 2003, Charles was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, by doctors at the Emory University ALS Center.

“I was getting weaker and I thought that it was just old age catching up to me,” he said. “I’ve worked with my hands all my life, but now I drop stuff all the time. I know I’m fixin’ to drop [something], but I can’t close my hands to stop it.”

“It’s been quite an adjustment,” said Saralyn.

ALS, which slowly breaks down motor neuron function between the brain and the muscles, had affected Charles Dyer’s balance, and before he had a motorized chair, he would sometimes fall.

“I wouldn’t know I was falling until all the stuff around me started moving real fast,” he said. “It’s a strange sensation. [ALS] doesn’t affect any two people the same way,” but “it affects everything you do from the time you open your eyes in the morning, until you close them at night.”

Dyer was recently featured in “ALS: Anyone’s Life Story,” a national campaign for Jerry Lewis’ Muscular Dystrophy Association. His story can be found on the MDA Web site.

Recalling when he was first diagnosed with the disease, Dyer said he fell into the trap of making a list of all the things that he couldn’t do.

With the support of his church, neighbors, family, and the staff at the Emory ALS Center, Dyer started thinking about all the things he could do.

“He’s been really inventive in dealing with the disease,” his wife said.

With his own two hands, he has retrofitted his motorized chair with reflectors and headlights for traveling around the neighborhood at night, installed a chain so he could lift the foot pedals, and using a coat hanger and a golf club, fashioned himself a special rod which allows him to pick up things and dress himself.

“He’s pretty much independent,” said Saralyn Dyer, who works as a substitute teacher at Forest Park High School. “It allows me to work, so that’s a blessing.”

Before ALS, Dyer enjoyed target shooting, fishing, home repair, and riding motorcycles. He says while he realizes he can’t do everything he used to do, he still manages to stay active.

“It’s slowed me down, but it’s not going to get me down,” he said. “I was never good at bird hunting until now. Thanks to the way I shake when I aim, I aim at the whole sky, and the birds don’t stand a chance.”

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