George Woodworth: The Epitome of Hope

For those who have never met George Woodworth, his unassuming demeanor endears him to many, like a magnet attracts metal components. Very witty, and sometimes irritable to a degree when he wants things done on the fly, it is not hard to fathom the dogged determination that has seen him forge ahead in life.

George has always had a lot going for him. He loves helping people, socializing, country music, driving, playing rugby, but his greatest love, something he always held passionately, is woodworking. He grew around two grandfathers who worked in the forestry industry, and a stepdad who was a carpenter. This motley trio will help shape his life through everything he worked for.

One day in 2007, at the age of 34, everything nearly came crashing down. How quickly a night of fun would turn its head. George and his next door neighbor went hunting raccoons at the end of North Tay Road, in Tay Creek, New Brunswick. It was just another night of exuberance. Up a tree he went instead and there was a dreaded sound, “Crack!

Down he came like a ton of bricks, all six foot two and two hundred and twenty pounds of solid muscled frame. George was by no means a small man, not by a far cry. He landed hard on his back, broke his spine and cracked his skull in one fell swoop. He passed out almost immediately. He came to four days later in a hospital ward. He recalled being in excruciating pain despite being heavily drugged. Nobody said a word to him about his condition, not even his mum. Instead, she told him her mother, his grandmother died the day before.

Not the kind of news he was expecting to hear. Memories of his fun loving days flashed before his eyes. So bold was he that he contemplated ending it all if he ever hurt himself. Well, that day of reckoning finally caught up. When he found out he was paralyzed from the chest down and that he would never walk again, reality set in. Depression and a sense of vulnerability engulfed him.

In the same breath, George was able to turn that a negative attitude into positive energy. Cloaked in an aura of stubborn determination, he looked the doctor square in the eyes and blurted out, “So where do we go from here?” Blessed with a never say never attitude, nobody knows what the reaction will be until one is faced with the situation.

George pressed on. Rather than wallow in self-pity, he sought ways of being the difference by exuding a positive influence on those who come in contact with him. He has been able to maintain his lifestyle to a large extent. Woodworking has remained a passion. Down in his garage, in his go to zone when he is having a rough day, he is able to turn ordinary pieces of wood into fine art. To him, that is his medicine.

Some of those pieces of wood have history, like a twenty year old piece of maple wood he is working on turning into a custom made cutting board for a female customer in Quebec. The wood came off one of the maple trees in her father’s maple farm, with the hole through which the sap was tapped intact. Such is the legacy he derives his passion from.

George is a legend in his own lifetime. There aren’t many quadriplegics that ride customized tractors to clear snow in the winter or mow the lawn in the summer, and when he is doing neither, he enjoys the one and a half kilometer drive to the gas station to fill the tractor himself rather than delegate others. He has carved a niche of total independence amongst his peers and drawn a plethora of respect from all and sundry.