Wayne County Wanderings: 20 years ago, Harrison Balthaser's life changed in an instant
For most folks, it's a time to slow down a little bit and enjoy life. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, it's all about family and friends, picnics and parades, sunshine and swimming.
For Harrison Balthaser, though, the arrival of summer these days has a much deeper meaning — one that features a life-changing story arc which began tragically and ended miraculously.
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Near-death experience
July 2, 2005, unfolded like any other day in Harrison's life. A hardworking young dad with a passion for music and art, he'd spent the morning and afternoon on a job in northern Wayne.
When quitting time finally came, he packed up his gear and headed out.
Almost as soon as he pulled into the driveway, Harrison's giggling daughter leapt into his arms. She wanted to go swimming with her dad and had been counting down the minutes until he got home.
A dip in the family pool seemed like a great idea to Harrison, who'd labored all day under the hot summer sun. So, he hustled into the house, grabbed his swim trunks and headed for the backyard.
Now, Harrison had been around water his entire life and always maintained a healthy respect for rivers and lakes, ponds and pools. In fact, he'd become both an accomplished scuba diver and a member of two local volunteer dive teams — a man deeply versed in water safety.
All it took, though, was one careless act. Just a moment or two of seemingly harmless distraction on an idyllic summer evening. And suddenly his whole world changed.
Harrison's daughter was already happily splashing away when he dove in to join her. It was something he'd done on thousands of occasions without incident.
This time though, everything was different.
'I knew right away something was wrong,' Harrison said. 'I took a bad angle diving into the pool and hit my forehead hard on the bottom. I actually heard the crack and felt the crunch and I thought: Uh-oh, that's not good.'
When Harrison surfaced, he immediately felt the pain shooting through his neck. However, as a strong young man and multi-sport athlete, he tried to shake it off.
'I swam around a little bit with my daughter, but the pain didn't go away,' he said. 'I really just thought I'd jammed my neck or maybe just knocked something a little bit out of alignment. So, I went inside and asked Melody to massage it for me.'
Melody is Harrison's wife. She's intelligent and tough as nails, a Wayne County farm girl who once starred on the varsity basketball court at Honesdale. She's also a published author and a woman of deep faith gifted with an abundance of common sense.
Melody quickly realized the seriousness of the situation and insisted Harrison seek professional help. His first thought was to make an appointment with a chiropractor, but she overruled him.
'Melody absolutely wanted me to get an X-ray before we did anything,' Harrison said. 'So I put on an old whiplash collar and off we went to the hospital.'
That decision proved to be crucial because, as you may have already guessed, Harrison hadn't just jammed his neck or knocked something a little bit out of alignment.
Of interest: Wayne Memorial in Honesdale ranks third in national Most Beautiful Hospitals contest
Melody drove her husband to Wayne Memorial Hospital, where he was x-rayed and underwent a CAT scan. After nearly six hours in the emergency room, a nurse suddenly burst in with a look on her face that Harrison will never forget.
'Don't move!' she said. 'We're looking for a helicopter right now.'
A genuine moment of truth
It wasn't long before Harrison found himself winging through the summer night en route to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.
There, doctors broke the news.
Harrison had fractured the C-6 vertebra at the base of his neck. One wrong move could potentially mean a lifetime of partial or complete paralysis from his shoulders to his toes.
Thankfully, that wasn't to be.
After week in a cervical neck collar and careful observation, doctors decided that surgery would be the safest and best option. Harrison underwent a delicate procedure that involved fusing the C-6 vertebra and inserting steel plates to stabilize the affected area of his spine.
The operation was a success.
'I do still have some tightness and a little bit of pain,' he said. 'But it's nothing compared to how bad it could have been. I can't even imagine what might have happened — not being able to play with my kids or toss my grandkids up in the air and catch them. I'm so incredibly lucky.'
But Harrison almost immediately amended that last quote, changing the word 'lucky' to 'blessed.' Why? Well, because while lying on that gurney as it was wheeled into the OR, Harrison had a heart-to-heart talk with God.
You see, the darkest aspect of this remarkable story is that alcohol had become a major problem in Harrison's life. In fact, he'd been drinking the very day he made that ill-fated dive into the pool.
'Unfortunately it was part of the culture in my line of work back then,' said Harrison, who created beautiful art for commercial vehicles and also played drums in a rock band. 'I'm kind of ashamed to admit it, but I got into some pretty bad habits.'
For Harrison, this turned out to be a moment of clarity, epiphany … he'd even go so far as to say revelation. With doctors and nurses swirling around him, he closed his eyes and made a promise. If God would restore his health, he'd stop drinking for good.
And in his mind that's exactly what happened. God granted his prayer and for 20 years now, Harrison hasn't touched a drop of alcohol.
'I definitely knew that I wasn't going to drink again, but I didn't know how I was going to achieve that,' he said. 'In the end, I just stopped. That was it. Done.'
Taking nothing for granted
But while Harrison's drinking days were over, his struggle was just beginning.
He didn't go to rehab, didn't attend AA meetings and didn't receive any type of formal counseling. He just stopped. Not surprisingly, it took a long time, the unwavering support of his family, and major lifestyle adjustments before the temptation left him.
'In hindsight I absolutely should have gotten some help,' he admitted. 'As my family will tell you, it was a white knuckle ride there for several years. In the end though, I feel like God finally took it away.'
While the path Harrison has taken to sobriety might be a bit unorthodox, there's no arguing with the results. Over the course of the past 20 years, he's completely refashioned his life.
Harrison is deeply devoted to his family and has nurtured a quiet, but powerful, sense of spirituality. He thinks before he acts and looks before he leaps. He's genuinely thankful for each little victory and tries to learn something from every setback.
He has volunteered countless hours in his community, both as a dive team member for 25 years (Welcome Lake and Forest) and as an ambulance driver for two years (Damascus).
His family business, Harrison's Signs, is thriving, and he has even embraced music once again. He's currently touring as the drummer for Green River, a wildly successful Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute band.
And while Harrison loves the life he and his family have co-created in the wake of that near-tragic day 20 years ago, he's deeply conscious of the fact that it could all disappear with one bad decision.
He's never forgotten that promise he made and how dramatically his world changed afterward.
'Faith in God and being blessed with a wonderful wife who understood my struggle have helped me tremendously,' he said. 'Plus the support of my family and friends was paramount. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but they always stood by me.'
For these and so many other reasons, Harrison knows what a lucky man he is.
Lucky and blessed.
This article originally appeared on Tri-County Independent: Wayne County Wanderings: Harrison Balthaser's 20 years of sobriety
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