Marcia Hufford, whose parents Jim and Gloria co-founded a school and wrote a book to help take care of her and other individuals with brain injuries.

By JOYELL NEVINS

Record Herald Editor

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“I have always been tenacious in my life – as a child, through the Navy years and even today as I fight a reocurrence of illness – I never give up. I am forever tenacious.”

From “Forever Tenacious” by Jim Hufford

WEST MILTON – When Jim Hufford realized that his brain-injured daughter Marcia could pass away without leaving her mark on the world, he decided to change that.

“She’s never done anything – Marcia was dealt a bad hand of cards and can’t even play her own hand,” Hufford said, “I just thought I’d like to make her known.”

The former longtime West Milton resident wanted his book, Forever Tenacious, to be a monument to both Marcia and his deceased first wife Gloria.

“If we don’t sell a book, my goal was accomplished,” he said, holding the published copy in his hand.

Jim’s first foray into writing was his memoir Life on the Sea Gnat. Gnat was written about his service in the Navy during World War II. It was a present to his daughter Kristine, who wanted a record of what he lived through to give to her own children. Although he tried to type some of that almost 100-page book, it ended up being written by hand.

For Forever Tenacious, Jim didn’t even bother with the computer. The 250-page book was written entirely in longhand. It took him two years to complete.

The title came in a much shorter time. Jim woke up one morning and thought “tenacious.” That day, Kristine was looking on the internet and one of the first things she saw was a hummingbird. The tiny, energetic bird became a “golden thread” throughout the book, a symbol of the fight the Huffords brought to do what they had to do for their family.

“It’s been a long, long road,” Jim said.

Marcia was born with a collapsed lung and a hole in her heart, a fact both the pediatrician and obstetrician missed the first three days. Although the hole closed all by itself by the time she was four days old, the lack of oxygen those first few days and a debilitating stroke on the third left her permanently brain-damaged. Her mother, Gloria, refused to send her to a state institution (mental health homes were almost non-existent in the ’60s), and so Marcia spent the next 37 years at home.

As a baby, Jim gave her the nickname “marshmallow” because of the softness of her body. Although Marcia still can’t speak coherently, she has a sense of humor and always laughs at the right time.

“She knows what’s going on; she just can’t express it,” he said, “There’s a hidden person in there.”

Jim refers to the 1960s as the “stone age of treatment for brain injury.” The only treatment or doctor the Huffords found that helped was a clinic 60 miles away, with a graduate of the Doman Delacato Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential. This evaluator described what Marcia deals with like someone who is watching television, and then the picture scrambles.

The Institute introduced patterning, which used physical exercise repetitions in an effort to stimulate the pathway to the brain. The Huffords first started working with patterning treatments in 1970.

Soon they were informed of a woman in Piqua who also was using this method for her mentally handicapped son. That woman was Ruth Hahn, who actually went to school with Jim and Gloria in Newton.

In 1972, the Huffords and Hahns joined forces to open the Rehabilitation Center, the forerunner of what is now the Hahn-Hufford Center of Hope. It was first housed in the basement of St. Paul’s Church in Piqua.

In his book, Jim wrote “little did Gloria and I know when the Center began that we stepped out of our own story of seeking help for Marcia and her life would help many others for infinity.” The group quickly outgrew the basement, and during an open house found a sponsor in Dimitri Nicholas.

Nicholas owned the Orr Felt Company, and visited the open house with his whole entourage. At the end of the tour, he turned to Gloria with tears in his eyes and asked, “You guys don’t have enough space anymore, do you?”

Nicholas then offered them the use of one of his facility showroom spaces.

“He said ‘I’ll lease it to you for a dollar a year, and I’ll pay the dollar’,” Jim recalled, “When we saw the space it was like manna from heaven.”

The next step was the need for a school. According to the Center’s website, Nicholas School, a product of the Rehab Center, began serving special needs children in 1976. The school is a state chartered K-8 Special Needs school.

For the next 20 years, the Huffords and Hahns helped other families like them, fought battles with redtape, and continued to expand the Center’s reach.

Then in 1997, the Hufford tenacity had to step into high gear when Gloria was killed in a car wreck. She was on her way to Miami County Human Services, to deliver paperwork for turning half of their house into a special home for Marcia and people like her. That never happened.

Marcia’s care was too much for Jim to handle by himself, especially since he was recovering from leukemia (Jim has had to deal with two bouts of leukemia, four bypasses, and losing a finger to infection). Marcia ended up in Mumford House, where she still resides today and is regularly visited by her father.

“They take wonderful care of her – I’ve never had a complaint,” said Jim.

He was given a second chance on love through one of Marcia’s former nurses, Roberta Matthews, also of West Milton. Roberta would get Marcia ready for school when Gloria was recovering from an operation. She continued to help with Marcia until Gloria passed away.

“Gloria always said about Roberta, ‘God puts the nicest people in my path’,” Jim said.

Roberta and Jim’s lives crossed again when he read an obituary for her husband Ted in 1999. He called up to offer his condolences, and she asked how Marcia was doing. Jim took her to see Marcia at Mumford – and three and a half years later, they were married. They now live in Union.

Jim calls Roberta his ‘nurseaneer’. He explained in his book, “though she was a nurse I believe she has the skill of an engineer in everyday life.”

At the turn of the century, the Center made another huge change. Executive Director Carla Bertke let it be known that the Center had grown too big for its space once again. In March of 2000, an anonymous benefactor gave five acres on Garby. Four years and several fundraising campaigns later, the Hahn-Hufford House of Hope opened.

The complex houses the Rehabilitation Center, Nicholas School, Brain Wellness Center, and Aquatic and Wellness Center.

“People come from all over the United States to bring their kids here,” said Jim.

He said those people will often ask him how the Center gets such “wonderful people” on their staff.

He replies, “They just have that feeling in their hearts.”

For more information about the Center, visit www.rcnd.org or call 773-7630.

Jim’s books can be found in Jay and Mary’s Book Store in Troy, or online at www.sunkingmedia.com.