Trailblazer

By Jill Cousins

Altamonte Springs resident Jerry Goldsmith has always lived an active lifestyle. In fact, at 80 years old, he’s as active today as ever despite the fact he’s been unable to walk normally for nearly a decade. Jerry’s juxtaposition of activity and disability might seem impossible, but it’s a combination of resiliency, ingenuity, empathy, and a little technology that not only keeps Jerry moving but helps him inspire everyone from wounded soldiers to grieving parents.

As a child growing up in Southern Massachusetts in the 1940s and ‘50s, Jerry played all the team sports – baseball, basketball, football, and soccer. When he moved to Central Florida in 1983 with wife Diane and their three children, he continued to stay fit by taking long bicycle rides five or six days a week on the Seminole Wekiva Trail.

One day on the trail, about 10 years ago, Jerry took a tumble off his bike that would turn his world upside down. It happened during a triathlon training ride in Lake Mary (yes, Jerry was a triathlete at age 70) with six or seven of his cycling buddies. A pedestrian on the trail cut off the lead cyclist causing a pileup. Jerry went down hard. His bike was wrecked and, as Jerry would later discover, his body didn’t fare much better.

Immediately after the crash, though, Jerry felt fine. He left the next day on a six-week vacation with Diane. But it grew increasingly clear something was wrong. Detailed scans eventually revealed several broken ribs and a broken collar bone, but none of it explained why Jerry was suddenly having trouble walking.

It took 18 months, during which the always-active Jerry was trapped on the couch taking too many pain pills and ballooning to 280 pounds, but he was eventually diagnosed with idiopathic bilateral neuropathy (nerve damage in both legs from an unknown cause). Surgery relieved the pain, but the use of his legs would forever be limited. It would not, however, be the end of Jerry’s active lifestyle. In fact, it was just the beginning of his next inspirational journey.

Jerry Goldsmith is proud of the numerous medals he has accumulated from his many road races.

Trauma and Triumph

This was not Jerry’s first lesson in resiliency. His father died when he was just nine years old, followed by the loss of several other family members. Tragedy would strike again in 1998 when Jerry’s youngest child, daughter Rebecca, was killed by a drunk driver when she was just 16 years old.

“When people said, ‘Oh my God, you lost your legs,’ my favorite line is, in the Goldsmith family story of trials and tribulations, losing my legs doesn’t make the top 10,” Jerry says. “One of my major personality traits is resiliency. At an early age, I learned how to just get on with things.”

After his surgery, Jerry knew it was time to find a new way to stay active. He was, after all, in the middle of training for a triathlon before the crash.

“I loved it,” Jerry says of the intense training regimen. “I think part of it was being 70 years old and working out with these young kids. I was always the oldest of the group, and I just adopted that role.”

Jerry dressed as a Hanukkah Elf at a holiday 5K.

“I knew he needed something in his life; he just didn’t know what it would be after his accident,” says Diane, a former Jewish Academy of Orlando kindergarten teacher who has been married to Jerry for 52 years. “After he had the surgery and the pain was relieved, he began to think that he could maybe do something.”

Jerry was getting back in shape through physical therapy and long-distance swimming, but he was eager to get back on the bike trail. He started researching his options, and that’s when he discovered a relatively new type of allterrain wheelchair, called the GRIT Freedom Chair, that would do the trick. Jerry flew to Boston where the chair is manufactured to try the mountain bike/wheelchair hybrid and proclaimed, “This is gonna do it!”

A special wheelchair has allowed Jerry to get back on his beloved bike trails despite limited use of his legs.

“You can actually hike in this chair,” Jerry says, “so it meant being able to go to the playground with my grandkids, go on hikes with them, go fishing with them. It was a major change. I started using it and found I loved it.”

Jerry is once again a frequent sight on his beloved trail, doing six-to-10-mile rides three or four days a week. He has also found a community of other GRIT riders – both online and in Florida – and some of them meet up a few times a year to compete in 10K (6.2 miles) and half-marathon (13.1 miles) races.

One of Jerry’s favorite things about his newfound community is that he is once again able to mentor and inspire younger riders, just like he did when he was cycling and competing in triathlons. He has also become an official ambassador for the GRIT wheelchair’s manufacturer and is actively involved in helping injured military veterans in groups like the Wounded Warrior Project.

Jerry and Diane also continue to help others – and heal themselves – through their work as leaders of a local chapter of the Compassionate Friends grief support group and as grief facilitators for New Hope for Kids, which provides assistance for children and families going through difficult times.

“Life always gives you different missions and challenges,” says the ever-optimistic Jerry. “It’s up to you to respond.”

Story was originally published in print in Spring 2023.