Better Angels: Both in wheelchairs, Larry and Mark stand together

Here's how Larry Brown and Mark Hubbard became friends.

It was the late 1980s, and they were teammates in a wheelchair soccer league. Larry, 50, has multiple sclerosis and is paralyzed from the waist down. Mark, 47, has a spastic quadriplegia form of cerebral palsy.

Larry was driving Mark to soccer one day, and Mark asked if they could go through a McDonald's. Mark is unable to feed himself, so when the bag of food came, Larry climbed down from the driver's seat and fed Mark from the cabin floor of his van.

"That. Amazed me," Mark said.

It is not easy for Mark to speak. His tongue doesn't always cooperate. There are spaces in sentences as he formulates his words.

Another time, Larry was visiting Mark at Mark's group home. Mark had to use the bathroom. And Larry took him.

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"That. Amazed me," Mark said.

Why those things amazed Mark, Larry said, is because Mark had never seen someone in a chair assist another person in a chair.

"That was liberating," Larry said.

Mark asked Larry if he would be his caregiver. Larry, who was working in IT, saw an opportunity to do something meaningful for someone he cared about. He's been Mark's caregiver since 2010, though Mark sees their relationship as something deeper.

"We. We call. Ourselves. Brothers," he said.

The apartment they share on the city's far north side is designed for accessibility. Everything in the kitchen is easy to reach. Doorways are wide. Hallways, too. The bathroom is laid out with their needs in mind.

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Both Mark and Larry are advocates of non-institutionalized care for people with disabilities. They prize their freedom and their independence.

"I always say to myself: 'No excuses,'" Larry said.

"The wheelchair is no excuse. You can do it if you want to do it bad enough. There's a way to figure it out. I always believe that in my heart."

So, for example, Larry and Mark study tae kwon do. A few years ago, to earn his high white belt, Mark had to use his hand to break a board.

It took try after try after try. And it seemed impossible until he did it. For his efforts, Mark received a trophy for "Indomitable Spirit."

"In my life," Mark said. "That goes for life itself."

Breaking boards. Breaking barriers. That's what Mark and Larry do.

Larry is keenly aware of barriers that separate people with disabilities. Architecture. Government policy. Language.

If he and Mark ride their wheelchairs to the grocery store, he prefers to say they walked. He doesn't like the connotation of the word "van," and therefore calls his vehicle a "car."

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"Think of yourself as anybody else and use mainstream English," Larry said.

"You don't use something that would set you off from the crowd. You talk in the language anybody else would."

Which is why, when Larry describes his relationship with Mark, what he says is:

"We stand together."

Join us in telling the stories of our better angels, of the kindness, compassion and decency that brighten our community. Call or text Crocker Stephenson at 414-858-6181. Or email him at crocker.stephenson@jrn.com.