Monthly Archives: August 2020 (Page 2)

Day 94 – Monday, August 21st, 1995

Once again, Jesse and I are up early and ready to resume the hectic pace that has become our lives over the summer. By 7:30 the road crew gets us to Greenhills Golf Course where we finished on Saturday. The morning hosts from FM96 are doing their morning show live from this location and talking with them is one of seven interviews we did while the road crew was making final preparations for getting underway. There were walkie-talkie batteries to check every morning. Cold water and fruit snacks were loaded on board the mini vans. There was a briefing with the police escort to make sure everything is coordinated, and the days volunteers were given the safety lecture before we could get underway. On this day, there is a huge contingent of people ready to walk with us. From the moment we get going, there are hundreds of people waiting to see us and shake hands. I can see that this is going to be a tiring day. Jesse and I stop each time we come to a person in a wheelchair who has made the effort to come out to the side of the road. These are the people who really see Jesse as their champion. People are honking and waving, and kids have signs everywhere and all kinds of businesses have greetings on their billboards. The Blue Knights motorcycle group joins us at Wharncliffe Chrysler, and while we are glad they are with us, we are having a little trouble with the exhaust from the motorcycles in front of us. I don’t want this to be a problem for Jesse.
When we turn onto Wellington Road heading north into the city, the crowd continues to grow. The McDonald’s restaurant on Wellington Road has set up a cold drink location and all along the road people are pressing into our hands cash, cards and guardian angel pins and flowers and hats–and teddy bears. Jesse is swamped and the escort van is filling up with ‘stuff.’ A band joins us at Horton Street, and we make our way to City Hall where mayor Dianne Haskett greets us along with her daughter. At Reg Cooper square there is another huge crowd. My old friend Bill Brady is the master-of-ceremonies and there are several gifts and cheque presentations after the national anthem which I was happy to note, everybody sang. One of the highlights of this stop is learning that a park is going to be named after Jesse. That’s a really nice touch. Jesse and I both spoke, and I thanked the many ‘volunteers’ who have come out to help. In the afternoon, after lunch at City Hall, we headed back to the road making our way east along Dundas Street. There were hundreds of people waiting to take pictures and make a donation – which is the whole reason we are out here.

We pushed on to Shaw Road on the east side of London before being scooped up and taken into Thamesford where a fire engine is waiting to escort us to a barbecue. After this event we returned home for our final night in London before heading east. It has been a long day, but it’s also been a good day when it comes to funding research.

(Ed Note: In times when we were driven forward to meet a time commitment at an event, we always returned to where we were left the road to keep our actual distance true and accurate.)

Day 93 – Sunday, August 20th, 1995

I feel like there is something wrong. When I woke up there was no road crew. No getting Jesse into his road outfit and into his wheelchair. No rush through breakfast to meet reach our start point, meet our police escort and begin another day on the road. Today there is silence. The first sound I heard was our little dog Charlie giving a small whimper at our bedroom door. I’d forgotten she does that when she wants to be with you. After spending the night in Jesse’s room, Charlie wants to visit.

After breakfast I didn’t know quite what to do with myself. It’s funny how you can get into such a routine that when it’s suddenly not there, you feel a little lost. I watched Sherene and it didn’t take me long to realize just how swamped with work she has been through this journey. I don’t know how she keeps it all going. Jesse and I both enjoyed a slow day, catching up on bits of family news and for the first time in more than three months, enjoying dinner at home with the family. After supper I enjoyed time with Sherene and kids, Tyler, Jesse and Tim. All too soon the day was over. Tomorrow we begin again.

This is the first time in 95 days that Jesse and I have been able to sleep at home in our own beds. For the next three nights we will be sleeping here, before pushing east toward Toronto. But this morning, it’s back to work. Jesse continues to amaze me at how willing he is to be up, with a smile on his face and ready to go – again. Throughout the day, that genuine smile will be there for people he has never met before. We left London at 8:00 a.m. for Port Stanley where we start our day on the shore of Lake Erie. After crossing the left bridge in Port Stanley there is a choir waiting for us at City Hall and Jesse is presented with a Teddy Bear while the choir sings, “You’ve got to live a little…..laugh a little….” It looked like it was going to be another hot day, and by mid-afternoon my guess is right. It’s 34 degrees Celsius and the road crew is keeping busy dispensing water and keeping a watchful eye on those volunteers who aren’t used to walking at either the pace we are going or for the length of time that Jesse and are now used to. I am keeping an eye on Jesse to make sure he doesn’t get dehydrated. Jesse’s care is really my number one job. There are lots of volunteers with us today, mostly people I have worked with in television. Their enthusiasm is at the boiling point and at times they scare me when they are weaving in and out of traffic collecting money from car windows. There is a lot of noise with car and truck horns and sometimes our OPP escort people turn on their sirens for the people along the side of the road. Lots of people come up to Jesse to shake hands, and that smile of his is always there. It’s funny the things I note sometimes. An old girl friend from high school stopped to wish us well. People from business along the road came with donations of fruit and apple cider. After lunch at Vince Barry Park on the north end of St. Thomas, and in the blistering heat, we pushed on along Highway 4 north to the sound of cheers and more car and truck horns, and thankfully, lots of donations. We reached our road target for the day at Greenhills Golf Course in Lambeth at 4:45. From there, Jesse and I were scooped up and hustled home for a quick shower before heading to downtown London. From the corner of Fullerton and Ridout Streets, we made our way to Victoria Park, shaking as many hands as possible. At a concert in the park, my friend from TV, Jim Swan, introduces us, and we are given a standing ovation. This is very humbling. Jesse and I both spoke to the audience and later posed for pictures and signed lots of autographs on shirts and in books. At one-point Jesse leaned over to ask me how much longer it would be before we can go home. This has been a really long day for him, and I can see he is tired. As soon as we could, I got Jesse home and into bed. Tomorrow is a built in and much needed ‘day off’ before we return to the road and tackle the highway to Toronto and then on to Ottawa. Tomorrow is the 20th of August and we have exactly one month to go to our finish line in Ottawa.

25-years-ago this month, my son Jesse and I had been on the road for almost 100 days as I pushed him across Ontario in his wheelchair. We began our journey at the Ontario/Manitoba border on a snowy Saturday morning in May of 1995.

We had no money.

What we did have was the hope that we could build something that would fund research into finding a treatment and ultimately a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a disease that robs parents of their most precious gift — their children.

That summer remains the hottest on record.

I was 49-years-old when we took to the road on a journey that was at times gruelling. It was an adventure that came to be known as Jesse’s Journey.

As I look back today, August 19th, 2020, my journal notes indicate that at the end of the day on August 19th, 1995 we had exactly one month left to go on the road to our finish at the Alexandra Bridge, just behind Parliament Hill. The bridge connects Ontario to Quebec and marked the completion of our journey spanning Ontario from the Manitoba border to the Quebec border.

Today, as children and grandchildren are getting ready to go back to school in this most challenging of times for all of us, over the next 30-days, I want to share my journal notes from those final 30-days that Jesse and I spent on the road in the summer 1995.

Today, we are all focused on the safety of children, and rightly so, but at the same time, when kids are given the structure and the tools to work with, let’s not overlook the amazing things they are capable of accomplishing when they choose to show their grit, perseverance and a ‘never give up’ attitude.

That is exactly what Jesse did for the 124-days we spent on the road together, crossing Ontario and doing the groundwork that let us build Jesse’s Journey to where it is now Canada’s largest funder of research in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

The story of each day of the final 30-days on the road, comes from my journal, which I wrote at the end of every day.

I hope you will enjoy the stories.

John Davidson
Jesse’s Dad

Jesse and John reach London on Day # 92.