Seeing Eye dog plays huge role in pastor’s ministry
Seeing Eye dog plays huge role in pastor’s ministry
A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose
The Pridmore family prepares for church at their parsonage in Rolling Fork, Miss.
The
Pridmore family prepares for church at their parsonage in Rolling Fork,
Miss., where the Revs. Eric and Lisa Pridmore pastor a three-point
charge. Lisa helps their daughter Mary Ruth with her shoes while Eric
and Gene, his Seeing Eye dog, get ready to go. A UMNS photo by Mike
DuBose. Photo number 04-251, 7/8/04
July 8, 2004
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
United Methodist News Service
ROLLING
FORK, Miss.—Three-year-old Mary Ruth Pridmore walks into the kitchen,
yawning and stretching, early on a summer Sunday morning. She gets a
kiss from Mom, Dad and “big brother” Gene.
Her
parents, Lisa and Eric, are both United Methodist pastors of a
three-point charge in rural Mississippi. Gene is a beautiful,
curly-haired, 9-year-old golden retriever.
This
Sunday, like every other Sunday, everybody will be going to at least
two churches. Lisa describes Sunday mornings as a “three-ring circus.”
But it doesn’t take Gene much effort to get ready. Whenever Mary Ruth
starts looking for help with her shoes, he knows it is time to fetch his
harness. As Eric’s Seeing Eye dog for the last seven years, he has a
big role to play and he loves his job.
Sometimes
it drives Lisa and Eric a “little bit batty” when people assume their
lives must be so hard because of Eric’s disability. “People sometimes
see Eric as this heroic but pitiful character and me as some sort of
superwoman. This is what we do,” says Lisa. “We are a family. In a lot
of ways we are just a couple of 30-somethings with a child and a dog.”
Eric
was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa when he was a teenager. It is a
degenerative eye disease that will eventually leave him completely
blind. For now he has lost all vision in one eye and can only see a few
degrees with the other.
He
points out that 75 percent of blind people who are of working age are
not employed. “So it is amazing that I am here. But I can tie my shoes
and do all of sorts of things that don’t amount to a hill of beans.”
He
also knows that not just anyone would marry a disabled person. But he
says of Lisa, “She’s not a saint. Neither one of us are.”
When it comes to Gene, however, both Lisa and Eric feel comfortable calling him a saint.
“The
feelings are deep,” Eric explains. “He is a savior in a sense. He is a
gift from God and in so many respects he saved me emotionally and helped
me deal with my own disability.”
Gene’s ministry
A UMNS photo by Woody Woodrick
The Rev. Eric Pridmore kisses Gene, his Seeing Eye dog at the Mississippi Annual Conference meeting in Biloxi June 3.
The
Rev. Eric Pridmore kisses Gene, his Seeing Eye dog, at the Mississippi
Annual Conference meeting in Biloxi June 3. Pridmore was ordained an
elder in the conference and Gene, wearing his own stole, was
commissioned to Christian service. A UMNS photo by Woody Woodrick. Photo
number 04-247, 7/6/04
Gene
is a big part of both Lisa and Eric’s ministry as well. Walk into a
room with a gentle, 75-pound golden retriever and people’s eyes light
up. “It is a real ice-breaker,” Lisa says.
“He
helps me do my work,” Eric says. “People love to see Gene at the
hospital. In his own way, he is very much in ministry. He is a dog, but
he is a creature of God and he gives my ministry a whole different
dimension.”
Gene’s
ministry was honored recently at the 2004 Mississippi Annual Conference
session. When Bishop Kenneth L. Carder ordained Eric on June 3, he also
commissioned Gene.
Carder
placed a specially made stole around Gene’s neck and praying for him
said, “be a faithful servant to your master as he serves The Master. Go
now as a commissioned servant in Christ’s Holy Church.” Gene got a
standing ovation from conference attendees.
Gene
was pretty much undaunted by the ceremony but Eric was overwhelmed by
the response. “I am not normally what you would call an affectionate
person. I don’t know what possessed me but I leaned over and kissed Gene
on the nose,” he recalls. “It certainly meant a great deal to me. It
made me feel included. It made me feel like I am ordained not in spite
of who I am, but because of all I am, dog and all.”
The early years
Eric
says one of the biggest mistakes he and his parents made was letting
him get a driver’s license and a car at age 16. “The first day I took it
to school I ran into the back of somebody. Six months later, I hit the
back of a lady on the highway,” Eric says. Those experiences left him
feeling defeated.
High
school was “hell,” especially since he was trying to pass as a sighted
person. “Invariably I would run into somebody or drop something and not
be able to find it,” he recalls.
But
in his United Methodist youth group he was accepted as just another
guy. “My church youth group literally and spiritually saved me. I didn’t
go to school with any of those kids. It was a small group, eight or 10
kids. The church as a whole just saved my life.”
He had his first preaching experience at a Youth Sunday when he was 15. From then on, he felt called into ministry.
Lisa
also felt called into ministry because of her involvement with a youth
group first in Albuquerque, N.M., and later when her family moved during
her senior year to Auburn, Ala.
Eric
and Lisa met and married while they were attending United
Methodist-related Candler School of Theology in Atlanta. It was during
Eric’s graduate studies at United Methodist-related Drew University, The
Theological School, that he became convinced he needed more help.
“The
campus was just a maze of sidewalks,” he explains. He started using a
cane but in the winter he couldn’t tell the difference between the
asphalt and frozen ground.
The Seeing Eye
A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose
The Rev. Eric Pridmore adjusts the harness that helps Gene, his Seeing Eye dog.
The
Rev. Eric Pridmore adjusts the harness that helps Gene, his Seeing Eye
dog, guide the United Methodist pastor to his seat in the chancel area
at Goodman Memorial United Methodist Church in Cary, Miss. A UMNS photo
by Mike DuBose. Photo number 04-252, 7/8/04
The Seeing Eye, where Gene was bred and trained to be a guide dog, was close by in Morristown, N.J.
Eric
really wasn’t sure about getting a guide dog. He and Lisa were living
in a tiny graduate apartment at the time and he remembers telling her
“the dog” could just sleep on an old blanket in the corner of the room.
But
he joined the month-long residential training program. “After the first
week at the Seeing Eye they took us to a pet store and I bought a dog
bed, dog toys,” he says. “Lisa came to visit and I was like ‘Lisa who?’
Gene and I were tight.”
For
her part, Lisa was amazed at the transformation in Eric. “I was floored
when Eric came back from Seeing Eye. Eric looked handicapped when he
used a cane — it was his body language. With Gene he didn’t look
handicapped anymore.”
Gene’s
presence was also a big change for Lisa because Eric didn’t need her as
much anymore. “From the start, Gene made it plain he thinks of me as a
fellow pup,” she says. While Gene has never chewed anything that
belonged to Eric, she has lost a few shoes and gloves.
The
dog is such a big part of their lives; he was in the room with Eric and
Lisa when Mary Ruth was born. In 2002, they almost lost Gene to cancer.
He had malignant tumors in three of his legs and underwent surgery at
the veterinary oncology department at Auburn University.
But Gene regained his strength and for now is not letting anyone else take his place as Eric’s eyes.
“I
don’t think of him as a dog, he is so smart,” Eric says. “He is like a
child, I love him. I don’t know what I will do if something happens to
Gene.”
*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer.
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