Jabberwocky: Lessons of Love from a Boy Who Never Spoke
About this audiobook
”This is a holy book” —Rabbi Lawrence Kushner
Graham Hale Gardner died before turning twenty-three and never learned to walk or speak due to severe cerebral palsy complicated by epilepsy. Yet he left a legacy of love and compassion that deeply moved scores of people from widely different backgrounds.
How was that possible?
Graham’s story, written through the eyes of his father, speaks of the enormous legacy left by a boy who never spoke. A story that raises provocative questions about the “invisible lines of connection” that make us human.
Graham was a strikingly beautiful boy who faced formidable challenges on a daily basis that most of us will never encounter. His ability to confront adversity with resilience and grace astonished and inspired nearly everyone whose lives he touched.
On the bucolic island of Martha’s Vineyard, at a pioneering summer camp for the disabled, a place “where hope flourishes,” Graham and his father become camper and camp doctor. There, they encounter an eclectic group of people who eat, work and create together. They write and cry together. They argue and dance together.
Camp Jabberwocky, as it is widely known, embraces the boy and his father and they become part of a passionate and zany extended family that will forever change how they see the world.
As the years pass, Graham and his parents experience both surprising adventures and formidable challenges. Wherever they live and travel, they encounter people who are drawn to Graham. These people, from widely different backgrounds, want to be near him, to assist in his care and to laugh with him. To them, the person they uniformly cherish is nothing less than a living angel.
Can we imagine living in a parallel universe known as “Jabberwocky,” where people open their hearts and minds to those who are different and nobody is left behind?
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About the author
DR. STEVEN GARDNER is an internist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. As a member of the MGH Global Disaster Response Team he has served in Haiti and the Philippines with Project Hope. He has been a volunteer physician at the Martha’s Vineyard Cerebral Palsy Camp (“Camp Jabberwocky”) for 25 years, caring for children and adults with a wide range of challenges. He is a passionate photographer whose images focus on the resilience of people facing adversity and the compassion of the people who assist them. He is a past winner of the Harvard Medical School Humanism in Medicine Award.
Mark Lawrence Wolf is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Wolf was nominated to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts on March 8, 1985 by President Ronald Reagan. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 3, 1985, and received his commission on the following day. In 2006, Wolf was appointed Chief Judge, and he served in this position for six years, until 2012.On January 1, 2013, he took senior status. His departure from full-time status created an open seat for the district. Wolf had been vocal about getting newer, younger judges to represent the court. Wolf wrote in his letter to the president. “While I look forward to continuing to render substantial service as a Senior Judge, I am confident that my court and my community will be enriched by also having the undoubtedly younger additional judge who will be appointed to fill the vacancy created as a result of my becoming a Senior Judge." As a Senior Judge, Wolf has continued to preside in a wide range of criminal and civil cases.In 2016, Judge Wolf, Justice Richard Goldstone of South Africa and colleagues formed Integrity Initiatives International (III), a Boston-based NGO and international anti-corruption advocacy group. III aims to combat grand corruption by strengthening the enforcement of criminal laws against kleptocrats. One part of III’s mission is to catalyze a campaign for the establishment of an International Anti-Corruption Court (IACC)—a concept which Wolf originated in 2014 articles for the Brookings Institution, published in The Washington Post.In July 2018, Daedalus (journal) published Wolf's article, “The World Needs an International Anti-Corruption Court.”[4] He has also frequently spoken on the role of the judge in a democracy, human rights issues, and combatting corruption in various countries around the world: Russia, China, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Egypt, Cyprus, and Panama.
Scott Wallace is a journalist whose assignments have taken him from the Himalayas and the streets of Baghdad to the Alaskan Arctic and the Amazon. A former correspondent for the Guardian and Newsweek, he has written for National Geographic, National Geographic Adventure, and Harper's. His photography has appeared in Smithsonian, Outside, and Sports Afield. His television credits include CBS, CNN, and National Geographic Channel.
