by Lisa Fenn
EPILOGUE
Story allows us a window into another person’s experience, free of risk, through which we can stand at that character’s crossroads, watching them live out their choices. Story allows us to vicariously test our limits and measure our endurance. We examine the boundaries of our moral fabric, and story either shows us the strength we hope to find in our hearts or, at times, depicts the worst of our fears about what else may be inside our darkest selves. With story, we can love and yearn and chance without the penance of consequence. And then we turn it off. We close the book. Because it is someone else’s story. We are under no obligation to continue in reflection once the story ends. But on a rare and mysterious occasion, a story does not end. It lodges itself inside us, and more broadly, into the bloodstream of a culture. The change that was necessary to move the story arc at times continues moving, through the hearts of those aching to be stirred.
In August 2013 ESPN aired Carry On II, a twenty-two-minute follow-up feature on my relationship with Leroy and Dartanyon. Initially, I asked Victor to forgo my inclusion, arguing that this was Leroy and Dartanyon’s story, and that they had a proven chemistry with viewers that we risked diluting by adding me into the mix. Ultimately, I lost the battle. The exposure once again catapulted Leroy, Dartanyon—and, this time, me—onto a world stage. And once again, thousands of people reached out in teary-eyed gratitude.
This outpouring seemed different, though. Four years prior, Carry On motivated people to care about Leroy and Dartanyon; this time, people were inspired to care about one another. They wrote to me personally to say that today was the day they would become foster parents. Today was the day they would show their families how much they cared. Today was the day they picked up a mentoring application at the juvenile facility that they had driven by every morning for the last twenty years. As people discovered connections between our journey and theirs, they found renewed encouragement to live with hope, with generosity, and with an ever deeper love.
Big Leroy went home from his son’s graduation in 2013 wondering what potential laid in wait within him. He enrolled at Edwin’s Leadership and Restaurant Institute, a French cooking program in Cleveland for former inmates. Big Leroy graduated and now works as a caterer in North Carolina. Motivated by Big Leroy’s success, Katrina enrolled next. She graduated in 2016.
Laurie Moline, the Akron Miracle Network producer who interviewed Leroy shortly after his accident and left feeling like something was amiss, saw Carry On II in 2013. As she watched, her chest tightened. She wondered if Leroy’s life would have been any different had she reported her suspicions twelve years prior. She wondered if she could have done more. And then she decided to make up for lost time. She began a mentoring program for teens and now shepherds dozens of kids from backgrounds similar to those of Leroy and Dartanyon toward self-sufficiency. Together, Laurie and I partnered to transition Leroy’s brother, Tony, into a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in 2015. I found Tony while researching this book. He reported still having nightmares about pulling his little brother off the train tracks. Tony was homeless, hopeless, and high before breakfast. He had hit rock bottom and started digging. Under Laurie’s watch, Tony emerged sober and gainfully employed. He moved into Big Ma’s house, where she faithfully and lovingly guards over him.
Arthur has held the same restaurant server job since Carry On aired in 2009. Once Dartanyon learned how to save his own money, he took a chunk of that savings and moved his father out of his drug-infested boardinghouse and into a suburban efficiency apartment. Arthur’s entire living space measures three hundred square feet, yet he calls it his Taj Mahal. Here he works earnestly at his sobriety. Dartanyon said he’s learned that the difference between winning and losing at this life is having just one person who believes in you, and he wants to be that person for his father. Dartanyon is pursuing a social work degree in hopes of guiding many more out of poverty one day. He became the Paralympic judo world champion in 2014 and continues to compete at an elite level.
In talking with Leroy for this book, I found that he remembered very little about the years following his accident. He retained the things he could live with and blocked out the rest. I turned to his doctors, teachers, coaches, and family members to fill in the voids. What I uncovered was at times uncomfortable, and I sensitized Leroy slowly, giving him the innocuous pages first to read for accuracy. When he proved he could stomach those, I shared the more astringent stories. We grew brave together, me as a writer and he as a survivor.
“I always thought I was over the train,” he said one day over the phone, “but your book made me see that I’m not. I can see now that it affects everything I do—the friends I choose, the bad decisions I make and the good ones I avoid. Way too much was put on my plate, at way too early of an age.”
I gripped the phone tightly, pressing his words against my skin. He started to cry.
“I didn’t try in school or with my art or with handling money because I wanted everything on my terms. All these years have been like a big temper tantrum over what happened to me,” he continued between breathless sobs. “After seeing it all on paper, it feels like this huge weight has been lifted off my chest.”
Leroy’s epiphany was the very one I had prayed for, from the first day I walked into Big Ma’s basement, all the way through the last chapter of this book. The portrait of Leroy served as a mirror for the person of Leroy, reflecting healing truths.
Shortly thereafter, in 2016, Leroy was hired as a tester by a top gaming company. On his breaks, he travels back to Ohio, where Alani and Kayla now reside.
And as for my dad, he still reads the Plain Dealer sports section every morning beside my grandfather, looking for my next great story. On his coffee mug is the face of his favorite grandson.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Shortly after Leroy and Dartanyon graduated from high school in 2009, LeBron James invited the three of us to his charity fund-raiser in Akron, Ohio. When we arrived, LeBron’s manager asked us how many people were in our entourage. The boys and I laughed in bemusement. “Could you imagine having an entourage?” we wondered. Today we laugh because we no longer wonder. We actually have one. It is made up of those who have come alongside us with timely support and steadfast encouragement. Some we knew for an hour, others for years. We consider all of you a special part of our Carry OnTourage.
To those who have watched ESPN’s Carry On and contributed to Leroy and Dartanyon, we thank you for rising up at such a critical crossroads in their lives. You kick-started their futures and insisted they have the opportunity to develop their untapped potential. Though we do not know you all by name, we remember you daily and dearly in our hearts.
To our trio of super supporters: Ira and Beth Leventhal, Jonathan and Delia Matz, and Bob Lamey and Paige Heid. All of you saw two young men flash across your television screens on the same day in 2009 and were drawn to act. You understood something that initially I did not—that to lift one out of poverty, it takes more than love. It requires financial commitment. You offered both. You invested freely, and you cheered us on at every turn. Your generosity inspires me to do more and to be more in the lives of those in need. Ira likes to call me the best general manager in sports. You began as my teammates. You became forever family.
Patrick and Alicia Hickey. Thank you for being Leroy’s Arizona family through the thick and the thin. Alicia, you have been my sounding board, my soul sister, and my secret mole. You make me brave.
To Mike O’Brien, Renee Bohinc, and Katie Kotkowski at the O’Brien Law Firm—thank you for scrambling as you did to set up Leroy and Dartanyon’s trust fund in record time. You understood the importance of momentum and put the needs of two boys ahead of your busy schedules. You continually use your powers for good.
Jay Lavendar, you were the first to insist that I take on the challenge of writing this book. I told you I couldn’t, that I had never written anything longer than twenty pages. “Perfect,” you said. “Just do that ten times.”
The process turned out to be slightly more complex than that, but were it not for you, I would never have begun. Thank you for reading pages and relentlessly rooting for me.
To Dan Conaway and Chris George, my dynamic literary agent duo. Thank you for believing in my proposal, for taking it to market, and then for insisting that I believe in myself.
To Sarah Murphy and Karen Rinaldi at Harper Wave, thank you for saying yes to this book, for believing our lives held a message worth sharing, and for taking that message enthusiastically to the wider world.
To my attorneys, Mitch Smelkinson and Aron Baumel, thank you for giving your time and attention so lavishly. As many contracts as you review in a week, you treat each one uniquely and carefully.
To my neighbors, Mark and Sybil Coleman, thank you for allowing me to slip in and out of your dining room unannounced to write when the clamoring little ones in my house were less than supportive of this endeavor. You sustained me through many blurry afternoons with prayer and plates of sliced fruit.
Thank you to Akron Children’s Hospital, the United States Olympic Committee, and the Akron Beacon Journal for fielding my many inquiries.
Thank you to ESPN for believing that “spunk” is an asset and for entrusting me with stories that transcend sports. You gave me some of the best years of my life, and I will forever be your greatest fan.
And lastly, to Navid—my husband and best friend. You have read every page of this book, and you know how to read me. Thank you for sharing the vision. You are My Guy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A three-time winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award and a six-time Emmy Award–winning feature producer with ESPN for thirteen years, LISA FENN interviewed every big name in sports. Then, in 2009, she met two impoverished, disabled, resilient young boys, and it changed her life—and theirs—forever. Today she is a sought-after public presenter, speaking on leadership, poverty, and transracial adoption, in addition to her Christian faith and its relevance in both her media career and her daily life. Lisa received her BA in communications from Cornell University. Her work has been featured on ESPN, Good Morning America, and World News Tonight. She continues to produce sports stories and write about the redemptive power of love. Lisa resides in Boston with her husband and two young children.
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CREDITS
Cover design by Gregg Kulick
Cover photographs © Kolman Rosenberg
COPYRIGHT
This is a work of nonfiction. The events and experiences detailed herein are all true and have been faithfully rendered as remembered by the author, to the best of her ability, or as told to the author by those who were present. Some names have been changed to protect the privacy and anonymity of the individuals involved.
CARRY ON. Copyright © 2016 by Lisa Fenn. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reproduce illustrations: Photographs before chapter 1, between chapters 4 and 5, and between chapters 12 and 13 are courtesy of Kolman Rosenberg. The photographs between chapters 8 and 9 and between chapters 15 and 16 are courtesy of Brownie Harris. The image ending the epilogue is courtesy of the author.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Fenn, Lisa, author.
Title: Carry on : a story of resilience, redemption, and an unlikely family / Lisa Fenn.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : HarperCollins Publishers, [2016]
Identifiers: LCCN 2016012130 (print) | LCCN 2016028025 (ebook) | ISBN 9780062427830 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780062427854 (eBook)
EPub Edition AUGUST 2016 ISBN 9780062427854
Subjects: LCSH: Crockett, Dartanyon, 1991– | Sutton, Leroy, 1990– | Wrestlers with disabilities—Ohio—Cleveland—Biography. | African Americans with disabilities—Ohio—Cleveland—Biography. | Lincoln-West High School (Cleveland, Ohio) | Fenn, Lisa. | Cleveland (Ohio)--Biography.
Classification: LCC GV1196.C76 F46 2016 (print) | LCC GV1196.C76 (ebook) | DDC 796.812092 [B] — dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016012130
16 17 18 19 20 RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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