Sherwood's Story

For Sherwood Toatley, rehabilitation came from two unlikely sources: a baby and a teenager...

Sherwood was only eleven when a bicycle-stunt-gone-bad resulted in a C1/C2 incomplete spinal cord injury. After spending most of that summer of 1981 in the hospital, he was sent home. “They didn’t really know what to do with me back then,” he said.

Though Sherwood was eventually admitted to a rehabilitation facility a year and a half later, it was his brothers, Sean and Shannon, who provided the initial motivation to improve.  “I told my mother that Shannon, who was six weeks old, was going to help me get better. Being a big brother and learning to feed him and change his diapers were therapeutic for me. I helped raise him,” Sherwood said with pride. His 13-year-old brother, Sean, never treated Sherwood any differently after the accident. “He and I continued to fight like normal sibilings did. I didn’t realize until later that Sean was intentionally allowing me to hit him in order to strenghten my arms and legs.”

His mother played her own role in her son’s recovery. “She wouldn’t let me say ‘I can’t.” In our house that was a bad word,” he recalled. So that fall, Sherwood went back to school. Yet his experience wasn’t quite the same as other students his age. “For seven years the school bus dropped me off at physical therapy; that was my afternoon routine,” he said.

His desire to be like everyone else pushed him out into the workforce, despite a high level spinal cord injury. “I had expensive tastes and I couldn’t keep up with them on a disability check. I had to go out and make my own money to be able to travel and to buy what I wanted,” he said. Over the years Sherwood’s travels have included vacations in Key West, New York City, and the Bahamas. He even ventured abroad to Paris and London, which “is a whole lot more wheelchair friendly than Paris.”

Starting out as a 911 operator/dispatcher, Sherwood was employed by Columbia-Richland 911 Communications and Lexington County Public Safety. When shoulder problems began slowing him down, he chose to take medical retirement at age 40 from his position as a 911 telecommunicator shift supervisor. He’s since returned to work on a part-time basis, as well as volunteering with the Spinal Cord Injury Association.

After dedicating the past two decades to his career, Sherwood has decided to shift gears. “Now I want to enjoy myself more and live the life I’ve been given. Where will that take him? His ultimate destination is Sydney, Australia. “I just love going to cities I haven’t seen before and exploring,” he said, quoting a favorite line from a Robert Frost poem, “But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep.”