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6.9.00
A MIRACLE AT CRYSTAL PALACE
At birth, he was paralyzed from the waist down.
The doctors said he would never walk.
Give him crutches, push the wheelchair, what a shame, nobody deserves this to happen....
His mother said thanks for the advice.
Then she massaged and worked his little legs every day. At 11 months old, she strapped a pair of roller skates on him, pushed him around the living room.
He began to regain feelings in each leg. He had operation after operation. Scars run up and down his back, down towards his left leg. His mother introduced him to figure skating. Around the rink he went, so good he eventually wound up in competitions.
The kids in school heard about him, invited him to come out for hockey.
"I always wanted to be a goalie," said Andrew Reimer, 13, the other night....
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On Monday eve, Reimer wore a gold jersey and there he was between the pipes as the goalie for Overkill in a house roller game at Crystal Palace on Rancho. This was also Eddie's first time back on blades since September of last year.
So Eddie, during warmups, ripped a couple of blue-streak low liners at his goalie.
Andrew snagged
every shot, either with the glove or coming down to stop the shot with his stick.
"Nice work," said Eddie, tapping his stick on the outside of Andrew's red and white Bauer pads.
The
game was a chiller. High-speed forwards buzzed about, taking pucks down the wood floor and going straight for Andrew in the gold jersey.
Once,
two shooters broke out of the pack and crashed in, passing the puck back and forth. One got too close to the crease area and Andrew bolted out of the net and poke-checked the puck away as the two forwards skated off with green-jersey defenders bearing down.
There was a smattering of applause from the 50 or so parents milling around the boards.
"Nice save," said one of the Dads, working on cup of rink coffee.
It was more than a nice save.
For the very few who knew the story behind the story, it was a....miracle.
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Summertime hockey scores: www.vegasbay.com
Go to Personal Web Pages and look for Eddie's site.
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