An old wrestling teammate of mine, Tim Green, currently runs the Utica Boxing Club and helps train Matt Hamill. I called Tim up and gave him the background story of my daughter Andrea. She is 26 years old and was diagnosed as being functionally retarded from birth. She was unable to learn the simplest of tasks such as tying her shoes. Some time ago, she came into the living room and sat down to watch The Ultimate Fighter with us. One of the fighters was Matt Hamill. She was so impressed with watching this “deaf guy” fight and then communicate using sign language that, without us knowing, she started learning sign language on her own up in her room. One day she surprised us by showing us what she learned.
After explaining all this to Tim, I asked if there was any way we could introduce her to Matt. He said hold on; he’s right here, let me explain it to him. I could hear Tim explaining it to Matt a couple times and then I heard Matt reply “Yes, tell her to come down…I would love to meet her.”
The next day, my wife and I drove our daughter down, without her knowing where we were going. As we walked into the boxing club, we could see Matt hitting the heavy bag. At that moment, I told my daughter we were there to meet Matt Hamill. Her reaction was like a 5 year old on Christmas morning. We walked around the boxing ring and when Tim saw us, he immediately got Matt’s attention and he quit his workout and came over. He introduced himself using sign language to which my daughter replied. Watching them having this “conversation” was so intense that my daughter eventually broke down and cried and shortly thereafter, everyone, including Matt, started getting choked up and teary eyed. He is just a super person, kind hearted and gentle. The guy is such a class act. We could never repay him, or Tim Green, for what they did for my daughter. She was crying and enthused about her experience all the way home. Needless to say, getting better at sign language is her top priority now.
Here is a picture where Matt quit his workout to meet my daughter (on the left) and to introduce her to his daughter (on the right).
And here is a picture of them posing together after they both pushed the emotions back
I just can't say it enough about what a class act this guy is.
EDIT: My wife and I are overwhelmed by the responses and the kind words so we decided to throw up a small video (flash) clip of my daughter and Matt together.
You can see the flash video
here .
Thanks again so much
