Judy and Sophie's Story - Helping Hands
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0:00 - 0:08[Piano music]
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0:08 - 0:13Judy: I've wasted weeks composing clever cover letters to you
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0:13 - 0:17describing the many reasons I need a monkey helper,
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0:17 - 0:25but you don't need to told how a trained monkey changes a life of an isolated wheelchair user.
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0:34 - 0:36Oh, I remember thinking, Oh, I know what it was,
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0:36 - 0:39I remembered thinking, sitting there in the office,
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0:39 - 0:42well of course that's what its like for most people,
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0:42 - 0:45but it won't be that bad for me.
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0:45 - 0:49It can't be that bad for me.
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0:49 - 0:53And it has been. Pretty much that bad.
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0:58 - 1:04George: Before we even got married, Jude had had some funny neurological kind of symptoms.
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1:04 - 1:09She had a numbness in her body that seemed odd.
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1:09 - 1:12Judy: We went on a very long walk in the Caribbean,
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1:12 - 1:18on Saint John, from the top of the mountain, all the way down to the beach.
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1:18 - 1:22The next day, I couldn't feel my legs at all.
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1:22 - 1:25I thought it was funny.
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1:25 - 1:32I remember saying to George: Hey George, can you beat that?! I can't feel my feet!
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1:32 - 1:36George: And... As everyone does when they're young
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1:36 - 1:39and have a twitch, they go: "well I hope that goes away quickly."
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1:39 - 1:44As it happened, very soon after we got married
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1:44 - 1:49she officially got diagnosed as having progressive MS
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1:51 - 1:57Judy: It was winter and George and I went out for a drive.
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1:57 - 1:59We went way out...
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1:59 - 2:05Way out into the field with black sky and a zillion stars
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2:05 - 2:08And, now, I don't think I've talked about this since then,
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2:08 - 2:21but I howled, because the doctor had made it sound like it turned out to be.
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2:21 - 2:27And so I howled and, and then after a certain time
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2:27 - 2:30I said, OK, that's enough. I can come home now.
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2:32 - 2:36George: Jude went from being a busy realtor and a runner
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2:36 - 2:42to slowly getting to the stage where she needed a cane.
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2:42 - 2:51I'm learning to accept that when you pass these markers, you're not going to see them again.
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2:51 - 2:52you've passed them forever.
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2:52 - 2:55This is a one way street.
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2:55 - 2:58And it's dawned on me in the last couple of years
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2:58 - 3:02that this is a fight that I cannot win.
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3:02 - 3:05Jude is gonna die of this disease
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3:05 - 3:09and there's not anything I can do about it.
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3:16 - 3:18I think the first time we heard about the monkey
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3:18 - 3:21was in a magazine article.
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3:21 - 3:23So in an idle moment she went on the internet
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3:23 - 3:29and looked up monkeys, helpers and came up with these people in Boston.
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3:29 - 3:31And the website said something about:
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3:31 - 3:33if you would like a monkey, send us an e-mail.
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3:33 - 3:39And I think in our minds we thought nothing would ever come of it.
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3:39 - 3:44And about three days later we got an e-mail back
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3:44 - 3:49Megan Talbert: Judy sent a letter initially that really did strike us as being really unique.
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3:49 - 3:50Really from the heart.
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3:50 - 3:51It made us laugh.
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3:51 - 3:53It made us want to know more about her.
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3:53 - 3:57Helping Hands has learned over the last 32 years what works
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3:57 - 3:59and how we can build a relationship
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3:59 - 4:01between a service animal and a recipient.
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4:01 - 4:07We've taken the time and the energy to build this process
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4:07 - 4:09because we know how important it is.
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4:09 - 4:12Woman with Monkey: Can you go fetch? Atta girl, Daisy! Atta Girl!
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4:12 - 4:16Megan Talbert: We all run around this world going a hundred miles an hour,
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4:16 - 4:20but the people that we help are adults
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4:20 - 4:23who have had that ability taken from them.
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4:23 - 4:25And to be able to give that gift back,
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4:25 - 4:28even if it's in the form of a six pound monkey helping,
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4:28 - 4:31that partnership that we have seen again and again,
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4:31 - 4:33that is what makes Helping Hands work.
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4:36 - 4:40George: Jude is immobile in her chair
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4:40 - 4:42and if she goes for the phone
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4:42 - 4:45and it slips out of her hands
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4:45 - 4:48and hits the floor, it's 18 inches away
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4:48 - 4:51and it might as well be 18 miles away.
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4:51 - 4:56So we went: "Wow, if this monkey could pick up the phone, that would be terrific.
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4:56 - 5:00Megan Talbert: One of the things that Judy was looking for was a monkey
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5:00 - 5:04that would be able to fetch objects off of the floor, off of a shelf.
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5:04 - 5:09Really what the monkeys learn over time is to anticipate their recipient's needs.
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5:09 - 5:12For example, something as simple as
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5:12 - 5:16walking into a dark room and flipping on a light switch is impossible for Judy.
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5:16 - 5:19Sophie's able to fill that void.
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5:19 - 5:22Judy: I had kind of a not much life.
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5:22 - 5:25And then Sophie came and it became,
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5:25 - 5:29that's what I wanted to do was hang out with that monkey.
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5:29 - 5:31I think I'm her prize person
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5:31 - 5:35when I go in the room she makes more fuss over me
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5:35 - 5:36and I love that!
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5:36 - 5:39George: She was sitting in Jude's lap the other day
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5:39 - 5:41and Jude was sort of mindlessly stroking her and stopped.
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5:41 - 5:48And Sophie reached out her small black hand and grabbed Jude's hand
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5:48 - 5:52and dragged it back because it was clear that she wasn't done being stroked.
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5:52 - 5:54Everybody lit up.
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5:54 - 5:56It was a great moment.
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5:56 - 6:00As it happened she's been with us for a year today.
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6:00 - 6:04It's her anniversary.
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6:05 - 6:08And I don't know how I could have gotten through
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6:08 - 6:09this year without her.
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6:09 - 6:12Megan Talbert: One of the things that's very important
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6:12 - 6:17to a lot of our recipients, is that their monkey doesn't see them as disabled.
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6:17 - 6:20They don't recognize the things that they're unable to do.
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6:20 - 6:24Their monkey sees their recipient as protector,
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6:24 - 6:26As alpha. And that's really important.
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6:26 - 6:28It's a really important gift the monkeys give to
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6:28 - 6:30somebody who has had so much taken away from them.
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6:30 - 6:34Judy: Some of my friends said "You got a monkey?!
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6:34 - 6:36What did you get a monkey for...What are you gonna do with a monkey?!"
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6:36 - 6:41I said: well, how have I lived so long without a monkey?
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6:41 - 6:45Is really the question.
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6:45 - 6:47I've come to find out I was right.
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6:48 - 6:51She's really cool.
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6:51 - 6:56[Guitar music]
- Title:
- Judy and Sophie's Story - Helping Hands
- Description:
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Judy met George while on a sailing trip in the Caribbean. They fell in love, married, and began an active life in Vermont. From the moment Judy discovered she had progressive multiple sclerosis, life for the couple began to change in ways they could have never predicted. By the summer of 2011, Judy had long lost her ability to walk and most of the motion in her upper body. George had become a full time caregiver. This is the story of how Sophie, a capuchin monkey, came to change both of their lives.
Produced by Cary Wolinsky
Directed and edited by Yari Wolinsky
www.trilliumstudios.com
vimeo.com/trilliumstudiosMusic from Nine Inch Nails' "Ghosts I-IV" album.
For more information, check out: ghosts.nin.com/main/homeHelping Hands: Monkey Helpers for the Disabled is a national nonprofit serving quadriplegic and other people with severe spinal cord injuries or mobility-impairments by providing highly trained monkeys to assist with daily activities.
Through the generous support of donors and volunteers, their monkeys are placed at no cost with disabled people and their families.
For more information, please visit www.monkeyhelpers.org
- Video Language:
- English