Dianne Vitkus | The Unexpected Journey
Episode Description
Dianne Vitkus and I met five and a half years ago in Spaulding Hospital while she was in inpatient rehab after her spinal cord injury and I was there for a PT appointment. Over the years we’ve become friends through our mutual enthusiasm for adaptive sports, the organizations that we are both involved with, as well as being members of the Boston spinal cord injury community. She is currently the resource program manager at the Travis Roy Center in Spaulding Hospital, where she helps newly injured patients find the resources that will prepare them for returning home. She leads the SCI consortium, a group of several New England-based spinal cord injuries coming together to tackle larger issues.
I visited Dianne in her apartment in the Charlestown Navy Yard, across the water from where I live in East Boston. After catching up, we began exploring grief, an emotional state that I have come to understand advances and recedes often unpredictably and not in a linear way, like we are often led to believe. Dianne and I both have experienced a resurgence of grief in the past year or so. We also have many wonderful things in our lives. This conversation exemplifies the ability for grief, sadness, and loss to coexist with joy, connection, and love in a person’s life.
Guest info:
- @vittysvoyage
- @impossibledreamcataram
Additional Resources:
- www.highfivesfoundation.org
- https://mhanational.org/resources/suicide-prevention/
- https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/suicide-prevention.html
Contact us:
- Instagram: @unexpectedjourneypod
- Email: tim@unexpectedjourneypod.com
- Hosted and produced by Tim Brown
- Editing and sound design by Louis Arevalo
- Original theme music by Jesse LaFountaine
- Episode cover art by Lewis Falconer
- Cover art and logo design by Anne Holt and Lewis Falconer
The Unexpected Journey
Summiting and skiing an 11,000 foot volcano, completing a DIY adaptive sport decathlon in one day, harnessing a passion for art to help spinal cord injury survivors adapt and bond, flying in a wing suit as a double amputee, giving birth to and mothering twin girls as a quadriplegic…these are just a few of the powerful stories you will hear on The Unexpected Journey. Adaptive athlete and quadriplegic, Tim Brown, talks with other disabled folks to learn how they challenge preconceived beliefs, push boundaries, and get after it – ultimately leading to a life fulfilled. The Unexpected Journey gives you the experience of listening to two friends sitting at a kitchen table, around a campfire, or on a boat, letting you eavesdrop on an intimate conversation about their shared experience, their passions, and the challenging, rewarding and exhilarating elements of their life. The episode plays like an audio memoir of the guest with the host providing clarity and narrating the biographical details so vou can enjoy and appreciate the real and raw moments of the conversation. You’ll hear a sonic backdrop of original music to add emotional richness and additional sound design to bring into the moment with the guest as they describe their most formative and powerful experiences. The host, Tim Brown, is quadriplegic from a ski accident that resulted in a spinal cord injury 11 vears ago. He prefers to listen before speaking and shares his own experience along with the guest. Our mission is to elevate, educate, and empower our disabled and able-bodied listeners on the disabled experience through creative and powerful storytelling. Our vision is to be a leader in the creation and distribution of empowering disability-centric storytelling and to provide an accessible platform for participants in the disabled experience to share their stories with the world. The Unexpected Journey is a podcast about adaptive athletes, adventurers, and creators. Each episode features an individual with a disability sharing their powerful story of learning how to challenge preconceived beliefs, push boundaries, and get after it – ultimately leading to a life fulfilled. Listen to guests like Anna Sons talk about being the first paraplegic woman to summit and ski Mount Hood, Greg Durso share his love for adaptive sports and completing an adaptive decathlon, and Channing Cash on her childhood and Laos and becoming a Team USA ocean paddle racer. Hosted and produced by Tim Brown, a surfer, sailor, and skier who is quadriplegic from a skiing accident 10 years ago.Our goal is to Educate. Elevate. Encourage.
