Schools around the state opened once again and it was the second year that I wasn't one of the first to get to my school on the opening day. I started teaching in January 1970 -- after completing my student teaching that fall. For the next 36 years I taught in Florida's public schools. If that doesn't add up exactly, I took two years off to be with my daughter and two months after the birth of my son. I was an elementary media specialist in Jacksonville for 22 years and a special education teacher in Monticello for 14 years.
I am one of those rare commodities -- a Florida native. I am a first generation Floridian. My father's family moved to Florida in 1915 and to the Lake Okeechobee basin in 1919. When I was eleven my family moved to Monticello in north Florida.
In the Shadow of the Lone Cypress came to be because of my passion for the history of Florida, the family stories of Florida in the early 20th century,and my love for the country doctor who delivered me and who later became my grandfather figure. I had a difficult delivery and the action taken resulted in a life of cerebral palsy. For fifty years, I resented the fact that I had CP. The book was begun when I came to terms with my 'fate' in life.
CHARGED TO WITNESS
HEAD SHAKES, POOR ARTICUALTION, ANDALL
SOON TO BE PUBLISHED
IN A COLLECTION
BY
ENCOURAGING WORD PRESS
“Oh, no! God, please help me!” I remember yelling as the fireball came looming toward my face. A second later I was on the opposite side of the fire staring down at my arms which were on fire. God had answered my instamatic prayer and sent His angels to carry me to safety.
As a novice in clearing yard debris, I sought the advice of a neighbor on how to burn a mountain of limbs. He advised me to use diesel oil as the catalyst to catch the pile on fire. Not knowing the difference between types of fuel, I purchased a gallon of gas. I lit a fire and then proceeded to throw gas on the flames. The fumes ignited on my arms and I dropped the gallon of gas...I PRAYED.
Safely on the opposite side of the fire from the exploding gas tank, I remembered to ‘drop and roll’ – a phase that I pulled from my memory bank from teaching elementary students for over thirty years. As I dropped, I took off my shirt – which turned out to be soaked in gas and would have caught fire any second. (This too had to be aided by the unseen angels.)
God also placed my neighbor outside. It was very early in the morning and no one was usually out and about. He ran to get help and called 911. I was on my way to the burn center at the University of Florida in a matter of minutes.
Through the Grace of God, the ministering of His angels, and the work of modern medicine, I have very few scars to testify to my ordeal.
The explosion should have killed me, but God must have other plans for my life.
This was not the first life-saving miracle of my life. The first occurred in the first hour of my life. I was a breech birth and when I was delivered, the doctor could hear a heartbeat but I was not breathing. Most doctors of the day would have pronounced me still born. He and his nurse worked on me in the kitchen of her home that had been set up for deliveries in my hometown in the Everglades. My mother and father watched in horror as they threw me to one another and dunked me in hot and cold water. After forty-five minutes I gasped my first breath.
I was developmentally delayed and was not walking or talking at the age of two. Neurological tests revealed that my brain had been damaged at birth due to the lack of oxygen for such a prolonged length of time. The specialists told my parents that I had cerebral palsy and assured them that I would never walk or talk. They were told to take me home and love me for a few years and then it would become a necessity to place me in an institution.
We lived in a very small town where everyone knew my family. Because of the prayers of the citizens, the second miracle of my life came a few months later when I began to walk and talk, although I had difficulty with both.
I was raised in a loving Christian family and my childhood memories center around the church. To the outside world, I had a normal life full of the usual joys and trials of the childhood, adolescence, and teenage years. I sailed through the sixties without the help of drugs. I didn’t attend Woodstock, much to the disappointment of my children. I was a model Christian girl – on the outside.
The one stumbling block to my true Christianity was that everyone who saw me saw a façade. No matter what I did, no matter what I accomplished, I hated myself. At times I was even angry with God for letting me live in the ‘shell’ He had provided. My head shook constantly, I had to repeat myself to be understood, I couldn’t control my drooling, etc. At times I cursed the fact that the doctor, who I loved as a grandfather, had saved my life.
Growing up, everything came hard for me. Again, others had no idea. They only saw an honor student, who always had a big smile on her face. They had no idea that things that would take a ‘normal’ person an hour to do would take me three. I strove for perfection, which was impossible. I had a very low self-esteem; I hated myself and life. No one knew the rage that dwelled within.
My normal life included marriage, two children, teaching, church activities, and being actively involved in my community. For fifty years I ‘talked the talk’ of Christianity. Even though I was a Sunday school teacher and very active in the church, I did not see the reason for God placing me on this earth unless it was to be the mother of my children.
One Sunday morning in 1994, I saw David Ring on television. His story paralleled mine. Although I was deprived of oxygen at birth twice as long as he was, his cerebral palsy is much more involved than mine. God took off the ‘blinders’ from my eyes when I saw how Rev. Ring’s congregation responded to him and how many gave their lives to Christ as a result. God was using him as His vessel. It was at that moment, I realized that God had a plan for me from the very beginning. He made me just the way He wanted and it wasn’t a mistake that I survived my traumatic birth.
God had a plan for me to be a witness to His word. While He charged all people with the task, He charged me – with my cerebral palsy, head shakes, poor articulation, and all – to show others all of His promises.
My attitude changed toward the doctor who worked so long to save my life -- the man I loved as a grandfather figure, but resented for so many years. I decided to write a book about our relationship only to discover that I could think of only a few paragraphs.
After extensive research into Florida’s history, I began a historical novel. Using the research and family stories, a story unfolded. A country doctor, resembling the one who delivered me, became the protagonist. “In the Shadow of the Lone Cypress” was published in August 2003. It is now in its 2nd printing.
Since publishing the book, I have traveled extensively throughout the state of Florida. I have talked on panels and in front of large groups. Each time I begin to speak I tell of my birth, the doctor, and God’s amazing Grace. People listen to what I have to say and accept me just the way I am.
On March 18, 2004, when I survived the burn, I was reminded that God is always with me. It was a reminder that I still have a mission to fulfill.
At the beginning of life, God planned for me to have a special message through my life’s witness. At midlife, He reminded me again.
I retired May 30 after teaching for 36 years. I have also sold my house. So homeless and jobless, I don’t know what the future holds. I know that God still has a plan for my life and I need to listen and be His witness to the world.
Sally Settle Barrow,
School Library Media Specialist, Retired
UPDATE
June 30, 2008 I brought a home in Inverness, Florida. I continue to commute to Moore Haven bi-weekly to research the 1930's and 1940's.
Challenges don't stop
But teacher has overcome a lot in her life
By Sandy Strickland
Staff writer
Fifty-five years ago, a doctor delivered a baby in a small town in the Everglades. Born in a breach position, the baby had a heartbeat but wasn't breathing.
The doctor worked hard to save the infant, alternately ducking her under hot and cold water for 45 minutes until she finally started breathing.
Due to oxygen deprivation, the infant had cerebral palsy and was not expected to walk or talk. Her parents were told to take care of her as best they could until she could be placed in a special home.
Each year, Sally Barrow tells her story to incoming classes at Central Riverside Elementary School, 2555 Gilmore St. At first, it was a way to head off any mimicking of her speech. Later, it became a way to inspire students.
Barrow, Central Riverside's media specialist, has now written a book influenced by the doctor who delivered her.
In the Shadow of the Lone Cypress: One Man's Florida started out as an autobiography but took off in a different direction.
It tells the story of early Florida as seen through the eyes of a doctor who came to the state as an Army volunteer during the Spanish-American War and then returned to establish his medical practice in Moore Haven, where Barrow was born. The book climaxes with the 1926 hurricane that devastated the Lake Okeechobee area.
Barrow, who wrote under her maiden name of Settle, said the book is self-published with help from Bluefish Bay Publishing Inc. in St. Augustine. To celebrate completion of the eight-year project, Barrow's colleagues at Central Riverside recently held a reception for her in the school's media center.
"You will love this book," Betty Van Gorder, a reading recovery teacher and standards coach, told those attending. "It is the most enjoyable history course you will ever take."
Van Gorder joked that she's eaten lunch with the book for eight years and has begun wondering what she and Barrow will talk about now that it's completed.
Barrow, whose father was a newspaper editor and publisher, recalled helping him collect stories for the 30th anniversary edition about the great storm. In recent years, she's spent summers and weekends gathering information for her book.
"I just love Florida history, so I did a lot of research, and I rewrote it several times," said Barrow, whose older sister, Sandra Koonce, edited the manuscript.
Her other sister, Sue Getch, who came from Monticello to attend the reception, said she's extremely proud of Barrow. "She has overcome many obstacles to get to this point," Getch said. "She's got tenacity."
To students such as 9-year-old Hayley O'Steen, Barrow is an inspiration.
"She means a lot to me because it shows that people with cerebral palsy can be as
successful as anybody," said the fourth-grader, who's written her own account of Barrow's
story.
"I wanted to write it because I wanted other people to know about it. She's been through a
lot, and her being alive is a miracle."
For Barrow, who still has trouble writing in cursive, the book was a form of therapy. She was diagnosed at age 2 by a neurologist in Miami after she had difficulty walking and learning to talk. Gradually, she learned to walk without falling and to speak and be understood.
Growing up in the small town of Moore Haven was a blessing, said Barrow, adding that her parents, friends and classmates always made her feel normal. When she was 11, her family moved to Monticello.
Barrow, now a Yulee resident, said she has always liked people and has always pushed herself to succeed. When she was a senior at Florida State University majoring in library science, she said a professor told her she had picked the wrong profession and couldn't intern because of the way she talked. That only strengthened Barrow's resolve.
Barrow, who has two grown children and a grandson, has 33 years in education, including a 15-year stint teaching special education. She has been the media specialist at Central Riverside for 11 years.
"She's so devoted to the children," said Terry Woodlief, art teacher at Central Riverside, a magnet for gifted and talented students. "Whenever teachers come in and ask for anything, she saves us the legwork. She can put her hand on anything."
Staff writer Sandy Strickland can be reached at (904) 359-4128 or via e-mail at sstricklandjacksonville.com.
Hayley O'Steen, a fourth-grader at Central Riverside Elementary, speaks at a reception honoring Sally Barrow.
-- Sandy Strickland/Staff
Sally Barrow spent eight years writing a book about early Florida, titled In the Shadow of the Lone Cypress: One Man's Florida. Barrow is a media specialist at Central Riverside Elementary School.
