By Shealagh Sullivan
Contributing Writer
HUDSON — In 1992, Hudson resident Rob Butts was newly married, an accomplished electrical engineer, and someone who always embraced an adventure. But that same year, a tragic accident would upend his life as he knew it.
During a skiing trip to Killington, Vermont, Butts was gliding down the slope on his final trip down the mountain for the day. He and his wife were meeting friends in the lodge that evening, and the only way back to their car was a beginner slope he jokingly called the “The Ugh.”
Butts had been a lifelong avid skier. Picking up speed, he performed a maneuver called a “back-scratch.” But his skis didn’t come down in time. He described his fall as a “sledgehammer” hitting the earth.
“It was the weirdest thing, because it felt like all my life, I knew I was going to do it. And not only that, I knew it was going to happen, but it was supposed to happen,” Butts said.
Acutely aware he couldn’t feel much of anything, he called for his wife, who had skied ahead of him. Though the two were the only ones on the slope, help managed to arrive, carrying Butts down the mountain on a snowmobile. He was rushed to the hospital.
He never lost consciousness.
Butts had a burst fracture in his fifth vertebrae, rendering him paralyzed from the shoulders down. Doctors used a piece of his hip to fuse his fourth, fifth, and sixth vertebrae together. As he recovered in the hospital, Butts knew his life would never be the same.
In the years that followed, Butts suffered from chronic pain and was limited to bed-rest for three years. In that time, he read the Bible — a book he said he’d always had in his house but had never taken the time to delve into. He had been connected to his faith prior to his accident, but when he had “nothing but time,” he gave the Good Book a closer look.
“One of my ‘Rob-isms’ is that sometimes God will put you on your back to get you to look up. I looked up,” he said.
Butts will have been paralyzed for 34 years this spring. In that time, he’s gone back to school twice for graduate school. He went to Boston University shortly after his accident to pursue a master’s in computer science, an endeavor that took about a decade to complete. Unable to work with his hands anymore, he thought coding could help him professionally. He’s used those skills to design a kayak with a joystick-controlled motor, and a track system above his bed to help him get him into his chair in the mornings.
In December, he finished his master’s in theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and plans to travel to Texas in May to cross the stage.
To complete his papers, he used a mouthpiece that connects to his keyboard to tap the keys, letter-by-letter. The process was painstaking, even slightly impacting his jaw function. He once wrote a 22-page, single-spaced paper, only using the mouthpiece.
Though his reality is drastically different from what he imagined as a young man, Butts still has a zest for life – and his love of adventure never went away. He’s taken to parasailing and hopes to fly solo as soon as this year; he trains using an electromagnetic hand-bicycle to stay in shape.
He’s met and connected with people he never thought he would. He has two children, now in their 20s, who he has stayed close with.
“He’s the kind of person that if you are down, if you are sad, he always has a word to encourage you, to raise up your spirit,” said Marcia Cardoso, a close friend of Butts. “Even when I am at my worst, he can say something that I’m gonna just laugh at.”
Each week, his friend Jim Ash comes over to play cribbage. Butts designed a special card holder for himself, and uses his mouthpiece to signal to Ash which cards he wants to play: “He just maintains a level of faith and perseverance that is extraordinary considering what he’s been through,” Ash said.
Over the decades he’s been confined to his chair, Butts said he’s come to see his life as a blessing instead of a curse. He’s deepened his relationship with God and leads prayer groups at his church in Marlborough – all with the goal of showing others the comfort that faith can give.
“I have one friend who used to always want to pray for me to get healed. And I used to say to her, ‘I’m not so sure that’s my plan,’” he said.
Now, he’s working on turning his story into a book. The process started about six years ago, Butts said.
“It’s been cathartic,” he said. “I didn’t know if I’d remember a lot of this stuff anymore, but as I was writing about it, the more I was remembering. I can just see where I was, when I sat, and where I am now, especially going to school and all of that.”
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