A “Vintage” Wheelchair User – Jason Bell

by Cathy Cuff-Coffman

Jason Bell reflects on 25 years of seated life and how education plays a role in moving forward.

The date was September 11, 1997.

Jason Bell was 25 years old and struggling academically. The Sonoma, CA, native admits to being a terrible student since kindergarten.

“I had to repeat kindergarten,” he chuckles, “because I couldn’t sit still.” In junior high school, Bell’s restlessness and harmless antics warranted him a stay in a boys’ home educational program called Hanna Boy’s Center. It was near Bell’s home, so he didn’t feel he was “taken away.”

He stayed there for 7th and 8th grades.

“I was taught a lot of structure (at Hanna), a lot of routines, which stuck with me,” he admits. In ’93, Bell graduated from high school in Sonoma, and then his restless side kicked in.

Cabinet Pick

Bell’s father lived in Kona, Hawaii. He went there to learn cabinetry. Bell apprenticed under his and became a cabinetmaker.

“But ‘Island Fever’ got to be too much,” Bell theorizes. “I said, enough is enough.” Bell went back to school in Orange County, CA. “I was there for two or three years,” he says. “Until I was 25.”

Bell worked as an aide in a group home for developmentally disabled adults while attending college.

He remembers sitting in a mathematics lab, preparing his math papers (they required meticulous folding) for his first math trigonometry test.

Suddenly, says Bell, he “flipped out, saying to myself, ‘I’m not doing this math test. I can’t do it.’”

Bell didn’t like his path; he felt it in his gut. “I was hitting a brick wall with my head repeatedly; I dropped the course, left the study room, and headed home to go to work.”

Crashing Down

Bell was riding a Honda Nighthawk motorcycle. “It’s a street bike, and I took the back roads of Bennett Valley, which wind go over the mountain.”

As Bell rounded a corner, he saw a truck pull out of the driveway close to the yellow line. He tried to pass the light truck on the right. “You’re not supposed to do that.”

The driver saw Bell and corrected his course into Bell’s path. Bell went off the road, flew 200 yards end over end, and landed in a trench.

Bell says he lost consciousness for a moment but realized quickly, “there was nothing below the belly button; I just wouldn’t move. I started to panic, but then I felt a presence,” says Bell. “It was a feeling of pressure on my head like somebody had a hand on my head.”

It’ll Be OK

He pauses, then offers. “The phrase came across me, ‘Everything will be all right after five years.’”

“So I said, ‘All right.’ And, you know, [the phrase has] gotten me through,” says Bell.

Bell spent a month in Santa Rosa Hospital, rehabbing his body and fine-tuning his mind. His developmentally disabled clients came to see him, “Which was cool.”

He developed several close relationships, including one with another patient who is a lifelong friend.

“He was injured on the 7th of September; me on the 11th, so we went through rehab together,” says Bell. Both men were young, and, says Bell, “We were competitive too,” Bell notes they had a good time, pushing and challenging each other to be their best.

Bell also says there were some bad times linked to depression and mental health. Bell. He was on a lot of prescription pills “from ‘97 to ‘99, and I didn’t engage,” he admits.

Educated

And in those 25 years, the once-fidgety student found his academic niche. Bell earned a B.S. in history from Cal. State Fullerton. During an internship preserving oral histories and managing the ephemeral materials associated with each history, Bell says, “I was compelled to continue that work. Preserving history and making it accessible for others is a fit for me.”

Bell continued his education, earning a master’s degree in library science. He has been the Instructional Support Specialist for Napa Valley College for the past 11 years.

‘I began in the county archives, digitizing the obituaries an older fellow compiled from clippings from the local paper every week,” explains Bell.

“And, of course, you look at the stuff you’re working with,” he continues. “I felt like I was going to a museum every day in a way nobody gets to see.”

Bell says he enjoys the work, which grew into working with and tutoring the students. “I enjoyed that interaction and ended up staying there,” he says. “That was 2014, and I’ve been there since.”

Lifelong Learner

Bell said 25 years ago, the therapy was also different, so he has continued to learn and grow according to the demands of his SCI and paralysis.

“There needs to be a whole-body approach,” says Bell. After 25 years of pushing himself in a manual wheelchair, his initial injuries (an SCI at the lumbar region) were causing the muscles in his legs to “disappear” from lack of use. It also led to shoulder and neck (cervical spine) issues.

“I’m falling apart but falling together,” he quips. “Through the new therapies I’m taking, I’m seeing the pains within myself that I’ve masked, and I’m aware of where the pains are coming from.

“But, sometimes, it takes something to go wrong to see what’s important.”