Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero by Michael Hingson
Non-fiction. 231 pages. 5 Stars.
Synopsis:
Faith. Trust. Triumph.
I trust Roselle with my life, every day. She trusts me to direct her. And today is no different, except the stakes are higher. Michael Hingson
First came the boom the loud, deep, unapologetic bellow that seemed to erupt from the very core of the earth. Eerily, the majestic high-rise slowly leaned to the south. On the seventy-eighth floor of the World Trade Center’s north tower, no alarms sounded, and no one had information about what had happened at 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001. What should have been a normal workday for thousands of people. All that was known to the people inside was what they could see out the windows: smoke and fire and millions of pieces of burning paper and other debris falling through the air.
Blind since birth, Michael couldn’t see a thing, but he could hear the sounds of shattering glass, falling debris, and terrified people flooding around him and his guide dog, Roselle. However, Roselle sat calmly beside him. In that moment, Michael chose to trust Roselle’s judgment and not to panic. They are a team.
Thunder Dog allows you entry into the isolated, fume-filled chamber of stairwell B to experience survival through the eyes of a blind man and his beloved guide dog. Live each moment from the second a Boeing 767 hits the north tower, to the harrowing stairwell escape, to dodging death a second time as both towers fold into the earth.
It’s the 9/11 story that will forever change your spirit and your perspective. Thunder Dog illuminates Hingson’s lifelong determination to achieve parity in a sighted world, and how the rare trust between a man and his guide dog can inspire an unshakable faith in each one of us.
My Review:
This has been an excellent read, an emotional read, but an excellent read. I don’t think there’s anyone I wouldn’t recommend this book to. I’d read it again, but I think all should read it at least once. 9/11 hits me hard, personally. I was just a kid when it happened, nowhere near the action, and didn’t suffer any personal losses from the ordeal, but I’m kind of a sap and I bleed red, white, and blue. Despite my age and distance, however, the tragedy of 9/11 is not lost on me by any means. It was a terrible event in our history, an event that should not be forgotten. (Frankly, it boggles my mind that there is a generation now who will read about it in history books rather than have firsthand memories.) I remember that day. I know how scared my parents were. It took years for me to understand the depth of what had happened, but I will forever revere that day.
As for the book itself, it tells the beautiful story of a man blind from birth and his relationship with his stunning guide dog, Roselle. I had the pleasure of listening to Mr. Hingson speak at my college a few years ago. I, personally, have always been intrigued by the blind and deaf community. I find among them amazing people and I admire their spirits. But that’s just it, they’re people, like you and me. The magnificence of this story is not merely in that a “blind” man survived, but in the beauty of the relationship he had with his guide dog, in the majesty of a faithful God, and in the community that came together in a horrible time of conflict, fear, and pain. This is the story of love, trust, and growth. May we all learn and grow from this experience and from this story.