In reporting his story, the New York Post called him a “true Rip van Winkle,” and indeed the similarities between the English novelist Washington Irving’s 1819 story and the earthly events of this Arkansas gentleman are striking. The man in question is Terry Wayne Wallis, 57, and died in Searcy last Tuesday of unspecified causes. But twenty years ago, Terry was on the front page of every newspaper because, after surviving a fatal car accident that left him in a coma for 19 years, he woke up in 2003 and surprised the world. And since then, her family says, he hasn’t stopped talking.
The Story of Terry Wayne Wallis
In 1984, Wallis was behind the wheel of a car that crashed into a creek, killing his friend who was with him and leaving him a quadriplegic who slipped into a coma with little hope of recovery. His daughter Amber was born just six weeks before the horrific accident. Nineteen years later, in June 2003, Wallis opened her eyes and stunned nurses when he asked about his mother and his favorite drink. “He started with the word ‘mom,’ then he said ‘pepsy,’ and then ‘milk,'” Alesha Badgley of the Stone County Rehabilitation Center said at the time. Wallis’ family was obviously overcome with different emotions when the man woke up. “It was difficult to deal with. It was hard to realize that he was the very man I married,” said his wife Sandi, who burst into tears when Terry spoke for the first time. “I couldn’t tell you my first thought, I just fell to the ground… It’s a miracle,” mother Angilee said at the time (later deceased in 2018). The obituary in the Post said, “His mother and all of his family gave him relentless care throughout his coma and afterwards.” The family consisted of father Jerry Wallis, daughter Amber Wallis, grandchildren Victoria, Blazen and Arrow Wallis, among others brothers and numerous other grandchildren.
To work with the imagination, various analogies can be found on Irving’s short story, which is part of the collection entitled “Geoffrey Crayon’s Sketchbook”. The story of Rip van Winkle takes place in the time of the American Revolution between 1770 and 1790: The man of Dutch origin lives in a village at the foot of the Catskill Mountains in New York. Agreeable and generous, he is loved by everyone except his wife, who scolds him for the laziness that causes him to neglect the house and farm. One day, to avoid the woman’s constant reproaches, he flees to the mountains, where he meets strangely dressed men who are said to be the ghosts of Henry Hudson’s crew, gambling and drinking. Attend their feasts until he sits on the ground under a tree and falls fast asleep.
Awakening after 20 years
After twenty years, Rip wakes up and returns to his village, not imagining that he has slept for so long. When he returns home, he learns that his wife is gone and that his friends have emigrated or died in the war, and finds himself in trouble trying to prove himself a loyal subject to King George III. to declare, unaware that the revolution has since made America independent of England. However, he is recognized by an old man of the place. Rip’s daughter, now grown, hosts him at her home. Rip returns to his laziness and despite the absurdity of his story, he is believed by the old Dutch settlers, some of whom, dissatisfied with life with their wives, are beginning to want his fate.
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