This is Rommel Strip America Heilman. It's been a while since I put out a show.

We've been having floods all summer here in Vermont and I've been working pretty much full time on a story about a building that fell into the great brook last month in Plainfield.

That story will come out in a few weeks and then if the floods finally let up I'll be back to

regular programming.

But today I want to play a show I made a few years ago about

Mark Utter, a great man who I interviewed years ago and also who happened to be the

best dancer at my 50th birthday party hands down. I received news recently that he has

cancer and that he's in hospice and so I want to play his story again.

After you hear it, if you're inclined to write him a little note,

I hope that you will.

Mark loves mail.

I don't want to overwhelm him, so I think it's better to make a comment on my website and

then I'll make sure that he sees these comments.

So here's the show. Up until I had access to typing, I felt lost, deserted in an inaccessible sea. That's Mark Utter.

Mark Utter, actually that is a computer-generated voice speaking the words of Mark Utter, which he has tapped out with one finger.

Mark was born with a form of autism that makes it impossible for him to say what he's thinking.

For the first 30 years of his life, Mark did not have access to the world of words except as a listener, an observer.

When he was 30, he was introduced to supported typing, and for the first time in his life with the help of a facilitator and a typing pad

Mark started his life as a writer of words

It's slow going and it requires a lot of effort for him to maintain a

connection between his mind and his hand. Emily Anderson is one of the people

who has been trained to be Mark's communication partner.

...