Remembering Dana Reeve
This column was written by CBS News Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.
The word that may best describe Dana Reeve is courageous.
Her husband was Superman, but maybe it was Dana Reeve we really believed was the superhero.
"She was a guide in terms of how we should lift our spirits in the face of adversity, how, no matter what we're faced with, we can overcome it, even death,"
I never saw the two of them together that I didn't marvel at her grace, her strength, her love for him, and her determination to find a cure for spinal cord injuries.
It would have been enough for her to stand by her man. We would have been satisfied with that.
But Dana Reeve wasn't satisfied with a medical community that said spinal cord injuries are hopeless. She took her dazzling smile and steely determination to Washington, where she cajoled, charmed and convinced stingy lawmakers to make money available for research.
"She really was a profound leader," Patinkin observes, "in terms of, 'What do you do in the face of adversity? You behave the way I beahve.' The way Dana Reeve behaves. That's how you behave. You make the most out of every second."
Did we sometimes wonder if hers and Chris's cause was a lost one? Probably.
Yet, there was the evidence. Remember the video? Thousands of hours of excruciating rehabilitation resulted in Chris regaining feeling in parts of his body. He could literally feel with his own flesh what he'd known in his heart since his terrible accident — that Dana was with him.
"It's certainly a day of sadness," Patinkin reflects, "but it's also a day of remembrance of a kind of love abnd inspiration that is rare and unique. And I deeply believe that it's possible that these two lights of love couldn't be without each other."
First Chris, and now Dana is gone, too. And it breaks our hearts.
Harry's daily commentary can be heard on manyCBS Radio News affiliates across the country.