Motivated by faith, resident helps youth
Trotwood resident has overcome syndrome to make difference.
By all accounts, Denise Gilmore does a lot for those lucky enough to be near her. More than a lot, in fact.
The Trotwood resident mentors youth at Zion Baptist Church. She directs a youth choir. She works part-time at Wesley Community Center as a coordinator for an after-school program. She directs a vacation Bible school. She tutors and sometimes buys clothes for children with whom
she works. She recently earned her doctorate in ministry.
Those who don’t know her may find it remarkable that she does all of that — and more — from a wheelchair.
Gilmore doesn’t find it remarkable at all.
Told she has been nominated as a Dayton Daily News Unsung Hero, Gilmore immediately gave the credit to others.
“Through much prayer and support from other people,” she said when asked how she manages all she does. “You pretty much can’t do this on your own.”
But those who know her say she does just fine on her own. In fact, they say they depend on her.
“The wheelchair doesn’t hinder her from doing her level best in serving the community,” said Angela Birdsong, program manager at Wesley Community Center.
Birdsong depends on Gilmore for daily running of the after-school care program. The program offers children an evening meal and oversees them doing homework and participating in character-formation programs.
“She comes in every day and does her job to the best of ability,” Birdsong said.
Gilmore has been wheelchair-bound since she was 14 years old, 43 years ago. One Mothers Day, the then-teenager woke from a nap suffering pain and weakness in her legs.
Gilmore’s mother and her brother tried to stand her up.
“I could not stand,” she recalled. “It was just that quick. The strength was gone from my legs.”
After admission to Miami Valley Hospital and a spinal tap, she spent two months in the Dayton hospital. She spent another few months at a rehabilitation institution in Columbus. She would go home from Columbus on weekends.
‘I’m not special’
It was in Columbus, she said, that she learned to be self-sufficient.
“Iwas away frommy family, away from everybody, learning how to take care of myself and be independent,” she said.
She learned to be more than independent. She learned to help others.
“With people trying to help me and trying to show me how to do things, it’s just a residual that then I can help other people,” Gilmore said.
She laughed and added: “I didn’t realize I was handicapped until recently.”
In time, Guillain-Barre syndrome was diagnosed. Guillain-Barre is a disorder that attacks the body’s nerve system, sometimes resulting in near-total paralysis up to the neck. Its cause remains mysterious, and it is rare, affecting one person in 100,000.
There is no known cure.
The disease can be life-threatening, with paralysis in some cases affecting breathing and blood pressure. But in Gilmore’s case, the paralysis stopped at her waist.
From rehab in Columbus, Gilmore returned to her home and to Meadowdale High School, where no one treated her any differently — something she regards now as a great blessing. Sibling rivalries and other relationships simply resumed where they left off.
“It’s the way I live my life,” Gilmore said of her wheelchair. “It’s the way I have grown up.”
She studied the Bible at what was then Cedarville College (now Cedarville University) and moved on with her life.
“I’m not different from anyone else,” she said. “I’m not special. I just do really what I’m called to do.”
Call to serve children
Gilmore is called to do quite a bit, evidently. There are Christmas plays and Easter plays. Choir rehearsals. This past May she was ordained a minister.
Doris Bailey, who nominated Gilmore as an Unsung Hero, said she also drives herself everywhere, and offers transportation to young people who need it.
Bailey and Gilmore have been worshiping at the same church since 1992. They both sing in the choir.
Said Bailey, “I got to know her and realized how dedicated she is to kids.”
The fact that Gilmore was in a wheelchair caught her attention, of course. But like many others, Bailey soon found herself focusing on the person, not the chair.
“She was so active and so independent that that (the wheelchair) became almost non-existent,” Bailey said. “It’s amazing.”
A couple of months ago, Gilmore was part of a autumn excursion to a working farm, complete with a corn maze, Birdsong said. The wheelchair did not slow her down.
“She goes right in there,” Birdsong said.
“I pretty much do whatever I need to do,” Gilmore said. “When you grow up this way, you pretty much adapt very well. Especially if people allow you to.”
She has never been married and has not had children, which she surmises may be why she enjoys working with young people. She lives with her mother, who will be 80 in September.
“Having faith gives you the additional kick to move to the next level,” Gilmore said.