Still Looking Up Synopsis Fred Gordon
Still Looking Up – An Autobiography of the life of a quadriplegic by Fred Gordon
Not only does he live independently, you all most forget he’s paralyzed.
Fred Gordon is your average teenager growing up in the urban area of Maryland and Washington DC. With a two parent home he loved his mother but him and his father did not get along it seemed in any situation. He loved him as far as not wanting any harm to come to him but could not stand the way he tried to raise him. He thought his father was unfair and controlling so they constantly clashed with one another.
By the time he was 15 he would rather be out the house doing anything in the streets then to being at home. He started working at a fast food restaurant to justify his reasons to be away from home. Even though happy working, his closest friend sold drugs and convinced him to sell drugs with him. So instead of going to work, he began a life style of being a hustler. By selling drugs he quickly became part of the in crowd in school and in the streets. While still 15 he fell in love with a girl name Porche, after a few months they started a sexual relationship but he loved her even before they started having sex. They did everything together he even snuck her in his basement late one night to have sex but got caught, that was his parent first time meeting her. They still became fond of her after that, when the family union came up that year he convince them to let her go with them to North Carolina. He loved Porche so much when she went to tell her father she was no longer a virgin he offered to be with her for support and she said yes.
Fred was 17 when he met a New Yorker named Ray. Ray took him out of his neighborhood to sell crack in Virginia. That’s when he really started making big money. He bought a BMW while still in high school. Everyday he and his best friend Kevin caught a cab to Virginia, he didn’t want the people over there to know what kind of car he had. Eventually they both got locked up after turning 18, even though Fred was accepted to Morgan State College, the judge gave them both 7 years.
Since being locked up the relationship between him and Porche was going down hill. It was surviving while he was at the jail because she could visit, but once gone down the road the visits stopped, so did the letters, and then phone calls wasn’t being accepted. His heart was breaking not knowing what was going on. It was finally told to him that she is with someone else. He didn’t know how he was going to make it without her, but he did and after a year and a half he was set free.
Being back on the streets he found out Porche was in a relationship with another friend of his. Rob didn’t know much about the drug game until Fred put him under his wing and taught him, then to find out he betrayed him Fred wanted to beat him up. Porche found out Fred was home, still had sex with him but said she is in love with him and Rob. One night he caught up with Rob, Porche was with him, Fred beat him up that night but Porche left with Rob after she was with him sexually the night before. He couldn’t believe it and from that day he vowed that no woman will ever get that close to him to hurt him again.
It was hard for Fred to find a job because of his new criminal record but a friend of his cousin Lonnie, a guy name Wayne, his father had a trash company so he offered him a job with them. Fred and Wayne became good friends, not only working together but also going out to the clubs together. That became the routine, work, go out and meet women. Fred wasn’t interested in nothing but sex, he didn’t want know committed relationships at all, he still wasn’t over his heart break. They would leave the club and go straight to work, get off work and find something to get into before hitting another club not getting much sleep at all.
After being home for about six months leaving the club one night Wayne fell asleep and hit a telephone pole. Fred was in the back seat sleep, the impact through his body hitting his head on something in the car that broke his neck. The next thing Fred remembered clearly was waking up in the hospital unable to move. He not only couldn’t walk but he couldn’t move his arms, only his wrist and his head left to right. One of his first visits he remembered was from Rob, he hadn’t seen him since the fight, so that ended all problems they had before. By the time he could remember visits he had been in the hospital for a few weeks. Fred being hooked up to so many machines he was unable to talk or breathe on his own. He had a neck brace on, tubes through his nose and mouth, it wasn’t a pretty site. His visitors would leave out in tears after seeing him.
As time went on Fred started getting better. The first thing that went was the respirator he could finally breathe on his own. Then the tubes in his nose and mouth that allowed him to speak. A female doctor came in around that time to discuss the extent of his After being home for about six months leaving the club one night Wayne fell asleep and hit a telephone pole. Fred was in the back seat sleep, the impact through his body hitting his head on something in the car that broke his neck. The next thing Fred remembered clearly was waking up in the hospital unable to move. He not only couldn’t walk but he couldn’t move his arms, only his wrist and his head left to right. One of his first visits he remembered was from Rob, he hadn’t seen him since the fight, so that ended all problems they had before. By the time he could remember visits he had been in the hospital for a few weeks. Fred being hooked up to so many machines he was unable to talk or breathe on his own. He had a neck brace on, tubes through his nose and mouth, it wasn’t a pretty site. His visitors would leave out in tears after seeing him.
As time went on Fred started getting better. The first thing that went was the respirator he could finally breathe on his own. Then the tubes in his nose and mouth that allowed him to speak. A female doctor came in around that time to discuss the extent of his injuries, she told him he might never walk again. The first thing he asked her was could he have sex and babies. For him it was about getting better so he could go home. The first year he went through the hospital to rehab and the second year from rehab to school all taken place in Baltimore. His body was so different, he couldn’t pee, or have a bowel movement on his own, because his fingers didn’t work he had to learn how to feed his self again, dress his self, brush his teeth, hair, wash just everything he use to do with ease has to be relearned. Before he could even come home on the weekends his mother had to learn how to empty his bladder and other essential things about his care.
By that second year though Fred had been getting the hang of being in a chair, still wasn’t the strongest but was learning techniques that would lead to his independence. He is two years in and still haven’t been depressed or asking the why me, or having thoughts that his life is over. His only concern was if women were going to like him now and if he could have sex. Fred met some good people while attending the school/rehab, students and employees. He could get an erection but couldn’t keep it long, but one of the guys in a wheelchair he became friends with started telling him about ways and medicines to keep an erection even gave him samples of what he used.
Fred started having sexual conversations with a few female employees there mainly one who he thought would give him a chance if she didn’t work there. Even though he was nowhere near ready to try with anyone he enjoyed the conversation, the little flirting was good for his self-esteem. Being about 22 years old there was a female student there about 28 who showed a lot of interest in getting to know him as more than just friends. Still not having the confidence to have sex the fear of women not liking him was gone. Fred started going home every weekend, once his friends knew they would come get him but since he still couldn’t pee on his own he couldn’t be gone from his parents house to long because his mom had to empty his bladder. The doctor started him on some pills that would allow him to void on his own, when that happened he no longer had to be under them on the weekends.
His friends started picking him up on Fridays when he got home and dropping him back off on Sundays so his parents could take him back to the school/rehab. His parents started hating the fact he wasn’t spending much time there but wanted them to take him back. Told him if that’s how it’s going to be, get your friends to pick you up. They couldn’t get him from Baltimore so he decided just to stay up in Baltimore if he couldn’t come home and hang out with my friends. So that’s what he did all most until he finished school.
Fred graduated from the school/rehab, had a f you speech for some of the people who lied and gave him a hard time for exercising some rights he didn’t know he had when he first got there but his mother advise him not to leave like that so he thank the ones who helped him and kept it moving. Fred still didn’t appreciate or liked his father much at all so by being home full time he had to help his mother with dressing him and transferring him in and out the bed to the chair or vice versa. Well this made Fred skin crawl just having his father touch him, because of that Fred quickly learned how to dress his self and transfer in and out the bed. Once he got a nurse to help with his bowel training he was able to get his own apartment. Four months after coming home he and his sister moved.
Before he moved he was going out clubbing, meeting women, tried having sex, not with great success, still was trying. Once he moved it was on. He had his own place with no rules. Got him some of the medicine his friend in the chair told him about and was ready for anything. Started partying, smoking weed more, getting the hang of having sex, started selling weed on a humble, joined dj Floyed rap group, I mean whatever he thought he wanted to do that’s what he did. Being in the rap group he met many stars, got his share of groupie love, got to raise two kids, having two baby mommas one becoming his wife, lived a sex, drugs and rap and roll life style for 7 years.
A lot of trouble came with having the time of his life, like the police, stick up boys, having to move 11 times in 7 years, and then he got saved. That was the best thing that could of happened to him. Fred gave his life to Christ and went from being a grown boy to a grown man. He learned how to love and appreciate his father, how to forgive and open up his heart to let someone love him and he love them. Even though he still make mistake’s, that’s why he is still looking up. He realizes after a tragic accident like he has only God can keep your mind right, keep you from emotional break downs. There are lives that need healing and restored, and Fred knows he’s the vessel God wants to use.
Targeted Age Group:
15 and up
How is Writing In Your Genre Different from Others?
This my first book so I haven’t tried other Genre.
What Advice Would You Give Aspiring Writers?
If your self-publishing make sure you have a Marketing budget.
Author Bio:
Freddie Gordon was born at Columbia Hospital for Women in Washington DC, his parents, Freddie and Gloria Gordon move to Suitland when he was 5. Graduated from Suitland High school with plans to attend Morgan State until he was arrested on drug charges and sent to prison for a year and a half. After release he attend UDC community college but for only a semester. Because of his recent drug conviction he was unable to get a job. He started working for a trash company that was own by a friends father that gave him a chance to work. After only working a few months he was in a terrible accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down. During his rehabilitation he went to school for Computer Aided Drafting, called AutoCad. After doing rehab and school for two years he finally was able to come home for good.
For the next few years he just winged his way through life doing things that was familiar to him. after two kids, getting saved, and a marriage, he went back to school for AutoCad to re-learn the program in hopes of finding a job this time. A week after graduating he started working for a coaxial cable company called Applied Specialties doing Mechanical drawings, but after only 5 years he was forced to stop working because Medicaid said he made to much money and threaten to take away his benefits. Two years after that he finished his first book, Still Looking Up and now looks forward to a career as an author.
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
When I first go injured I was in and out the hospital, just by sharing my life with the staff mostly nurses, they would always say, you should write a book. Years later a small voice said, you need to write that book so I started writing the next day
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