Speaker* Creativity* Inspiration* Motivation
- Daily Record
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BY MICHAEL DAIGLE • STAFF WRITER • DECEMBER 13, 2009
Michael Monaco would like to move his arms. In his dreams, he would like to walk his dogs, drive a car, greet a visitor to his Lincoln Park home at the front door, standing.
In his dreams, he would like to walk his dogs, drive a car, greet a visitor to his Lincoln Park home at the front door, standing.
But reality for Monaco is his wheelchair. It moves when he blows into a strawlike tube. His hands are strapped to the arms of the chair. He cannot lift them.
There is nothing that prepares someone to be a quadriplegic, Monaco said.
"It's not like cancer, and they can brace you for it," he said. "This is something that changes your life in a split second. The minute you're injured, you lose everything — mentally, physically, spiritually. You are cut off."
For Monaco, that moment occurred 30 years ago on Nov. 30, 1979, when he was in a car crash that also left one of his friends dead.
He was 16. Cont...... - Star Ledger
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NEW JERSEY NEWS A paralyzed painter with an artful palate
Monday, May 26, 2003
By EMAN VAROQUA
STAFF WRITER
LINCOLN PARK -- Gripping the paintbrush tightly between his teeth, Michael Monaco carefully trims the white dove he created with royal blue paint. By moving his head side to side, his paintbrush meets the canvas with precision.
Monaco, 39, is paralyzed from the shoulders down.
"I paint better with my mouth than I ever did with my hands," he says.
He was 16 when he injured his spinal cord, a result of drunk driving. Monaco, then 6 feet tall, 190 pounds, and looking at a future of football scholarships, got into a car with friends after a night of drinking. They left one party for another. Cont........... - Xpander title
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