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My husband, Jeff Daugherty grew up on a farm in Fairmont,WV which is where we live now. We have been married for 34 years and have two grown children. We both started out as teachers in Winchester, VA. Jeff started his own commercial construction company and worked with this for 16 years. At that time he decided to go back to school and completed his Masters in Safety at WVU.
Jeff has always lived a very active and physical life. He worked and helped his dad on their cattle farm. We spent our summers boating and water skiing on the river and in the winter, snow skiing. He is a certified scuba diver and had even assisted in one search and retrieval effort in Fairmont for a young WVU student.
He has worked as a safety director or consultant on various projects for companies such a Welch Foods, Honeywell and Sargent Electric over the past 12 years or so. All of these jobs were out of state and he was only able to come home once or twice a month.
In November 2005 he accepted a position with Walton Construction out of Kansas City and the job site was located in Cheyenne, WY. We had just paid our last college tuition bill so we decided I would leave my job at Kendle here in Morgantown and move with him. In February 2006, Jeff suffered a nearly fatal stroke. He spent the next 2 months in a rehab center there in Cheyenne before finally being able to make the trip back to WV. Then he spent 2 more months before actually returning to our home. As a result of the stroke Jeff is unable to speak and has weakness on his right side. He has had to re-learn to walk and for short trips and around the house he uses only a cane. For longer distances he uses a wheelchair. His right arm and hand has minimal movement. As a result of the stroke Jeff has also developed epilepsy which is somewhat controlled with medication.
Since the stroke Jeff has been very reluctant to go places and rarely left the house and preferred to avoid being out in public. I thought a dog might be a good idea and while researching breeds on the internet I ran across some articles pertaining to service dogs. I started contacting different programs all over the U.S. and found most of them would not accept us as clients because we lived too far away. Only 2 or 3 programs would accept us, but they charged anywhere from $3500.00 to $10,000.00 which with all the medical bills we had going was out of our reach. We found only one group in Georgia which would provide us with a dog at no charge and accept us on their waiting list. We were told to expect a 1-5 year wait. We had been on that list for approximately 2 years when we found out about the Hearts of Gold program in Morgantown.
We filled out an application and went through the interview process. Jeff was fortunate that he connected with Clarke right from the beginning. We received Clarke in June 2008 and began our training. He brings Jeff's shoes to him, helps him undress. and takes us for walks. We have been going to the rails to trails since we got Clarke. He opens doors at the house for us and responds to Jeff though hand signals and some written commands. He goes everywhere with us including restaurants and stores and his behavior is always perfect and he seems to know its all business. Jeff is now using Clarke for balance while walking with the aid of a special harness. They are even able to go up and down a few steps together. Anything Jeff drops, Clarke picks up. They have truly become a team.
This past month Jeff, Clarke, our daughter Bryce and I took our first trip since the stroke. We flew to California for 5 days. He was extremely well received at our hotel, the Balboa Bay Yacht Club and several very ritzy restaurants.People wanted to hear about him and his special talents. The attention he received was unbelievable and took the emphasis off Jeff and his wheelchair.
It is hard to explain to you how much of an impact he has had on our lives and the joy he has brought to, not only our family, but so many people Clarke is in contact with on a daily basis. Jeff feels more independent and able to cope. I guess the best example of the public's reaction to Clarke was, as we were walking into Pittsburgh airport. As we made our way down the corridor, the people coming towards us on the moving walkway caught sight of Clarke and we had the opportunity to observe them breaking into smiles as they got closer to us one after the other. 99% of them were smiling and made eye contact with us.
Since Clarke has come into our lives, Jeff has been willing to go out more and participate in more activities. There is a sense of pride these dogs carry with them which can't help but spill over into our lives.
West Virginia is so fortunate to have a program like this start here in our state.There are a lot of people here in the mountain state in need of these very special animals and whose lives could be enhanced beyond belief. Until this group started, it was out of reach for most of us. The individuals involved with this group are hard working and totally dedicated to see that this program grows and thrives. We, as a state and community, need to offer any and all support we can, to see that Hearts of Gold succeeds and becomes a vital part of our community.
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