WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.351 [Piano music] 00:00:08.413 --> 00:00:13.499 Judy: I've wasted weeks composing clever cover letters to you 00:00:13.499 --> 00:00:16.783 describing the many reasons I need a monkey helper, 00:00:16.783 --> 00:00:24.543 but you don't need to told how a trained monkey changes a life of an isolated wheelchair user. 00:00:33.909 --> 00:00:36.192 Oh, I remember thinking, Oh, I know what it was, 00:00:36.192 --> 00:00:38.659 I remembered thinking, sitting there in the office, 00:00:38.659 --> 00:00:42.041 well of course that's what its like for most people, 00:00:42.041 --> 00:00:45.241 but it won't be that bad for me. 00:00:45.241 --> 00:00:48.791 It can't be that bad for me. 00:00:48.791 --> 00:00:53.211 And it has been. Pretty much that bad. 00:00:57.827 --> 00:01:04.007 George: Before we even got married, Jude had had some funny neurological kind of symptoms. 00:01:04.007 --> 00:01:09.194 She had a numbness in her body that seemed odd. 00:01:09.194 --> 00:01:12.145 Judy: We went on a very long walk in the Caribbean, 00:01:12.145 --> 00:01:17.978 on Saint John, from the top of the mountain, all the way down to the beach. 00:01:17.978 --> 00:01:21.878 The next day, I couldn't feel my legs at all. 00:01:21.878 --> 00:01:24.794 I thought it was funny. 00:01:24.794 --> 00:01:31.593 I remember saying to George: Hey George, can you beat that?! I can't feel my feet! 00:01:31.593 --> 00:01:36.477 George: And... As everyone does when they're young 00:01:36.477 --> 00:01:38.900 and have a twitch, they go: "well I hope that goes away quickly." 00:01:38.900 --> 00:01:44.473 As it happened, very soon after we got married 00:01:44.473 --> 00:01:49.230 she officially got diagnosed as having progressive MS 00:01:51.153 --> 00:01:57.424 Judy: It was winter and George and I went out for a drive. 00:01:57.424 --> 00:01:58.741 We went way out... 00:01:58.741 --> 00:02:04.679 Way out into the field with black sky and a zillion stars 00:02:04.679 --> 00:02:08.013 And, now, I don't think I've talked about this since then, 00:02:08.013 --> 00:02:20.660 but I howled, because the doctor had made it sound like it turned out to be. 00:02:21.135 --> 00:02:26.551 And so I howled and, and then after a certain time 00:02:26.551 --> 00:02:30.256 I said, OK, that's enough. I can come home now. 00:02:31.685 --> 00:02:35.786 George: Jude went from being a busy realtor and a runner 00:02:35.786 --> 00:02:42.369 to slowly getting to the stage where she needed a cane. 00:02:42.369 --> 00:02:50.602 I'm learning to accept that when you pass these markers, you're not going to see them again. 00:02:50.602 --> 00:02:52.169 you've passed them forever. 00:02:52.169 --> 00:02:55.254 This is a one way street. 00:02:55.254 --> 00:02:58.353 And it's dawned on me in the last couple of years 00:02:58.353 --> 00:03:01.954 that this is a fight that I cannot win. 00:03:01.954 --> 00:03:04.720 Jude is gonna die of this disease 00:03:04.720 --> 00:03:08.775 and there's not anything I can do about it. 00:03:15.822 --> 00:03:18.121 I think the first time we heard about the monkey 00:03:18.121 --> 00:03:20.870 was in a magazine article. 00:03:20.870 --> 00:03:23.321 So in an idle moment she went on the internet 00:03:23.321 --> 00:03:28.854 and looked up monkeys, helpers and came up with these people in Boston. 00:03:28.854 --> 00:03:30.654 And the website said something about: 00:03:30.654 --> 00:03:33.389 if you would like a monkey, send us an e-mail. 00:03:33.389 --> 00:03:39.088 And I think in our minds we thought nothing would ever come of it. 00:03:39.088 --> 00:03:43.587 And about three days later we got an e-mail back 00:03:43.587 --> 00:03:48.590 Megan Talbert: Judy sent a letter initially that really did strike us as being really unique. 00:03:48.590 --> 00:03:49.807 Really from the heart. 00:03:49.807 --> 00:03:50.541 It made us laugh. 00:03:50.541 --> 00:03:52.692 It made us want to know more about her. 00:03:52.692 --> 00:03:57.091 Helping Hands has learned over the last 32 years what works 00:03:57.091 --> 00:03:59.240 and how we can build a relationship 00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:01.424 between a service animal and a recipient. 00:04:01.424 --> 00:04:06.607 We've taken the time and the energy to build this process 00:04:06.607 --> 00:04:08.657 because we know how important it is. 00:04:08.657 --> 00:04:12.476 Woman with Monkey: Can you go fetch? Atta girl, Daisy! Atta Girl! 00:04:12.476 --> 00:04:15.840 Megan Talbert: We all run around this world going a hundred miles an hour, 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:20.290 but the people that we help are adults 00:04:20.290 --> 00:04:22.924 who have had that ability taken from them. 00:04:22.924 --> 00:04:25.457 And to be able to give that gift back, 00:04:25.457 --> 00:04:27.624 even if it's in the form of a six pound monkey helping, 00:04:27.624 --> 00:04:31.107 that partnership that we have seen again and again, 00:04:31.107 --> 00:04:33.449 that is what makes Helping Hands work. 00:04:36.357 --> 00:04:39.770 George: Jude is immobile in her chair 00:04:39.770 --> 00:04:42.004 and if she goes for the phone 00:04:42.004 --> 00:04:45.487 and it slips out of her hands 00:04:45.487 --> 00:04:48.336 and hits the floor, it's 18 inches away 00:04:48.336 --> 00:04:51.187 and it might as well be 18 miles away. 00:04:51.187 --> 00:04:56.238 So we went: "Wow, if this monkey could pick up the phone, that would be terrific. 00:04:56.238 --> 00:04:59.739 Megan Talbert: One of the things that Judy was looking for was a monkey 00:04:59.739 --> 00:05:03.969 that would be able to fetch objects off of the floor, off of a shelf. 00:05:03.969 --> 00:05:08.937 Really what the monkeys learn over time is to anticipate their recipient's needs. 00:05:08.937 --> 00:05:11.969 For example, something as simple as 00:05:11.969 --> 00:05:16.320 walking into a dark room and flipping on a light switch is impossible for Judy. 00:05:16.320 --> 00:05:19.303 Sophie's able to fill that void. 00:05:19.303 --> 00:05:22.137 Judy: I had kind of a not much life. 00:05:22.137 --> 00:05:25.387 And then Sophie came and it became, 00:05:25.387 --> 00:05:29.036 that's what I wanted to do was hang out with that monkey. 00:05:29.036 --> 00:05:31.369 I think I'm her prize person 00:05:31.369 --> 00:05:34.519 when I go in the room she makes more fuss over me 00:05:34.519 --> 00:05:36.487 and I love that! 00:05:36.487 --> 00:05:38.736 George: She was sitting in Jude's lap the other day 00:05:38.736 --> 00:05:41.337 and Jude was sort of mindlessly stroking her and stopped. 00:05:41.337 --> 00:05:47.936 And Sophie reached out her small black hand and grabbed Jude's hand 00:05:47.936 --> 00:05:52.103 and dragged it back because it was clear that she wasn't done being stroked. 00:05:52.103 --> 00:05:54.469 Everybody lit up. 00:05:54.469 --> 00:05:56.269 It was a great moment. 00:05:56.269 --> 00:05:59.519 As it happened she's been with us for a year today. 00:05:59.519 --> 00:06:03.671 It's her anniversary. 00:06:04.975 --> 00:06:07.635 And I don't know how I could have gotten through 00:06:07.650 --> 00:06:08.887 this year without her. 00:06:08.887 --> 00:06:11.692 Megan Talbert: One of the things that's very important 00:06:11.692 --> 00:06:16.592 to a lot of our recipients, is that their monkey doesn't see them as disabled. 00:06:16.592 --> 00:06:19.709 They don't recognize the things that they're unable to do. 00:06:19.709 --> 00:06:23.575 Their monkey sees their recipient as protector, 00:06:23.575 --> 00:06:26.494 As alpha. And that's really important. 00:06:26.494 --> 00:06:28.391 It's a really important gift the monkeys give to 00:06:28.391 --> 00:06:30.495 somebody who has had so much taken away from them. 00:06:30.495 --> 00:06:33.559 Judy: Some of my friends said "You got a monkey?! 00:06:33.559 --> 00:06:35.675 What did you get a monkey for...What are you gonna do with a monkey?!" 00:06:35.675 --> 00:06:41.435 I said: well, how have I lived so long without a monkey? 00:06:41.435 --> 00:06:44.769 Is really the question. 00:06:44.769 --> 00:06:47.089 I've come to find out I was right. 00:06:48.209 --> 00:06:50.626 She's really cool. 00:06:50.626 --> 00:06:55.802 [Guitar music]