Someone recently paid for breakfast for me and my wife. This sometimes happens to us I believe because I am a quadruple amputee and people must think I am a veteran. I am not a veteran, but say "Thank You" to the anonymous kind souls for our breakfast.
Since we are starting a new year, I have some reminders for fully abled people when you encounter the disabled. When you’re driving and pull up to a crosswalk or a sidewalk, don’t block the space with your vehicle. It doesn’t save you any time and it forces me in my powerchair, and others, to serve into traffic to get around you.  
The parking spaces and bathroom stalls marked with a little blue wheelchair are not for you; they are for people with special needs. That big steel bar along the wall is not a place to balance your drink, it’s there to help people like me get up and down. The stall is a little larger not to make it easier to spread out your sports section, but it is larger because sometimes our care takers have to help us.
And saying “I will only be a minute” while parked in a disabled parking space doesn’t allow you to be there. Let’s use some common sense as we begin 2021.
When you see me or any other disabled person, please don’t be afraid to talk to me. I would rather talk to you about what happened to me than have you be afraid to make eye contact with me.
Here’s to a healthy, healing and hopeful 2021. 

Today is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD), proclaimed in 1992 by United Nations General Assembly resolution 47/3.
I am grateful for the help PING has given me and others with disabilities to get back into playing golf through PING’s Adaptive Fitting Program. 
My wife Carol and I recently met with Paul Wood of PING to try out some new PING golf clubs. It was a beautiful day on the course at Grayhawk Golf Club.
https://twitter.com/paulwood79 
https://ping.com/en-us/fitting/adaptive-fitting   

My wife Carol and I enjoyed an Alaskan cruise and met Sheryl and Pete Stewart of San Diego. 
#dontworryaboutme #jefflewis 

Because of the miracle of the DVR my wife and I almost never watch TV ads, particularly political ads.

I like to watch the local sports teams live. Someday soon, I hope, a political candidate simply states, “My opponent is running for office because he or she has great ideas for our community. “I know my ideas are better and here’s why. ...”
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Thank you, Heavenly Father, for your blessing us with the DVR.
Jeff Lewis, Mesa
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Sixty percent of eligible voters turn out for presidential elections and 40 percent for midterms.
That stinks!
But, I know why. Because your candidate has dug up a lot of dirt to tell me how disgusting mine is and vice versa. It’s a lose-lose proposition. Who would want to vote for any of those dirt bags?
How about trying a new approach?
Start out each speech with, “Of course my opponent believes he / she will make your life better, that is why they are running. However, here is why you will be even better off by voting for me.”
It is just a dream I suppose. Gird your loins for the next few months. All you’re going to hear is “Nazi,” “racist,” “deplorable,” “thief,” “colluder,” “hates children and old people,” and, of course, the closer, “wants to take away your rights.”
Jeff Lewis, Mesa

 have been a quadruple amputee for 13 years. While I lay in my hospital bed, one of my high school department heads visited me and said, "Jeff, you are at a crossroads right now. You can choose to lie there and feel sorry for yourself or get up and improve people's lives." As a motivational speaker, I stole that challenge and use it whenever I speak.
Recently, the Arizona Biltmore Golf Club hosted a tournament for amputees which I participated in. How? Ten years ago, I decided that I wanted to play golf again. I called several manufacturers and asked for help. They all said, "We can't help you" except one.
When I called PING they said, "Can you be here tomorrow at noon?" Three months later I was golfing. Now I play golf five times a week and PING is one of my many heroes.
Everyone has experienced a loss. It may not be all four limbs, but maybe you have lost a loved one, had a financial crisis, or a relationship gone bad. What are you going to do? Get up and improve someone's life!
Jeff Lewis

Jeff and I just returned from the Amputee Coalition Annual Conference 2018 held in Tucson this year. We had a great time with old friends and met lots of new friends. Jeff presented a session on living with "Complex Limb Loss" and I presented two caregiver sessions. We were blessed years ago to learn so much at the annual conferences, and it feels great to be able to give back.​
Carol Lewis

Thirteen years ago I lost my hands and feet. I contacted an illness that sent me in to a 4 week coma and clotted off my blood supply to my extremities. As I lay in a coma, every medical professional wanted to let me go.

One person, my girlfriend, Carol, stood and fought for me when I could not stand and fight for myself. After she convinced the staff to try and save my life, the surgeon assigned to do the amputations took a look at me and refused. He confronted Carol saying, “He has less chance of survival than a reality show host has of becoming President of the United States. Besides, when he wakes up, he will hate you for having done this to him.”

​Never-the-less, the amputations were performed. When I awoke from my coma, I hated Carol so much that I married her while still in that same hospital on June 11. Today, we bowl, golf, dance and love life together so yes, I believe in miracles – my wife is one.
Oh, and I heard another miracle happened yesterday (June 11) in Singapore…

Possessing the ability to turn the bathtub tap on and off with your toes. 

I was saddened today to read of the senseless death of Benjamin McGivor, an assistant coach at Mesa Community College.
I barely knew him, but we had talked on more than one occasion. He was in a fight outside a Phoenix bar, fell and injured his head severely enough to end his life. He left behind his wife and three children.
Everyone, please show restraint, particularly when drinking is involved. It is better to turn the other cheek than waste a young father, husband and a good man.

​Jeff Lewis, Friday, August 4, 2017

​Carol and I attended the memorial service for Dr. Tom Bajo (pronounced Bay-joe) yesterday morning and his celebration of life that evening. I had the honor of meeting his best friend from Chicago. Even though we had never met, he approached me, called me by name and recited in detail about my stay at Good Samaritan Hospital 12 year ago. I was surprised and flattered that he knew so much and that Dr. Tom had shared my story. He had to catch a plane, so we quickly exchanged contact information.
At the celebration, Carol and I reconnected with many friends from my days spent in intensive care and rehab. Reconnecting with Angie Phillips was the most touching. Angie at that time was a young teen with a failing liver. Daily, our hearts saddened as we watched life leaving her body. Carol and her mother prayed daily in the chapel that God would save her life and mine.
A day I will never forget is when Dr. Bajo found her a liver. If you recall the song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon..." and the whole bus cheers when they saw not one ribbon, but 100, then you know how we felt when the whole damn ward was cheering when her life saving liver arrived.
But Angie's crisis was not over. She had weakened to the point where her body might not survive a liver transplant. SURVIVE SHE DID! She became a nurse and worked closely with Dr. Bajo. Carol and I, Angie and her mother wept openly as we embraced knowing that God sent us a miracle -- Dr. Thomas Michael Bajo.