THE
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CHAMPION
PRAYING FOR 51 Lynn Haven man helps others while battling ALS by STEVE BORNHOFT
R
andy Walton uncharacteristically paused. And paused some more. He is usually quick in conversation, making himself heard with a voice that is strong and deep and likely soon to fade. “That’s a tough one,” he said, finally. “I could tell him what he is going to go through and deal with and that he will need a good support system, as good as he can get.” Walton had been asked what he would say to someone newly diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, a progressive and terminal nervous system disorder commonly called Lou Gehrig’s disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing
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muscles to atrophy and resulting in loss of muscle control. Doctors in Panama City and at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville diagnosed Walton with ALS in October 2019. He consulted them after finding himself unable to twist a plastic nut onto exposed wire ends and struggling to get back to his feet after tending to a carpet tack strip. “Here’s a hypothetical. What if they were already gone?” Walton said, nodding toward his parents, Bill, 82, and Margaret, 79. “As it is, he has had prostate cancer, she’s got two bad knees and he has a bad knee. The only other person I’ve got is my sister and she lives in Jacksonville, so I would have to move there or pay for round-the-clock care.”
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Long retired, Walton’s parents were career civil service Department of Defense employees who worked in research and development at a Navy installation in Silver Springs, Maryland. Walton, whose specialty was microcircuitry, worked there, too, until the base was shuttered pursuant to a federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission’s recommendation. He was transferred to Naval Support Activity Panama City and retired from there in July 2018. Childless and never married, he had plans to travel the country on his 2001 Harley-Davidson motorcycle. But before he could hit the road, Hurricane Michael de-roofed his Lynn photography by MIKE FENDER
