As one of my guides wrote on a card that he sent to me in the hospital, the hardest climbs are out of the mountains. So it turned out to be. My favorite climbing quotation has always been Hillary s comment that it is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves. One of the happiest moments of my life was when the FAA certified me to climb back into the cockpit and fly 737 s again. It has been a long, difficult, painful struggle, but not without its rewards.
Every cloud really does have a silver lining.
On the afternoon before I had my fingers and toes amputated, I was wheeled down to the hospital s therapy department, and met with the lady who was to become, as James Brady used to say, my Physical Terrorist. I flirted with her through weeks and months of painful therapy, but she kept insisting that she could not, and would not, date one of her patients. She thought I was joking, but I told her I was dead serious about seeing her socially. Six months later, she finally agreed to go out with me. It was absolutely the best thing that s ever happened in my life.