Side-Yard Superhero: Life Lessons from an Unlikely Teacher (Fanfare for a Hometown)

Although life's journey takes him far from his childhood home, Rick Niece never forgets the people he meets and the lessons he learns as a young man growing up in picturesque DeGraff, Ohio, population 900. A small-town newspaper boy who becomes a lifelong educator himself, Dr. Niece is deeply touched by the endearing residents of DeGraff who shaped his youth, especially Bernie Jones. Confined to a wheelchair with severe cerebral palsy, Bernie becomes Ricki's friend, inspiration and superhero, opening a world of compassion, trust and adventure to them both. When he leaves DeGraff to attend Ohio State University, Rick promises Bernie that he will visit him again. Unfortunately, when Bernie s parents pass away, Bernie disappears, too, taken in by a distant relative. Forty years later, Rick learns that his boyhood friend is living in a nursing home. Returning to Ohio, he visits the never-to-be-forgotten Bernie Jones of a childhood long past and a promise finally kept.