Janice Logan
Staff Writer
Photo courtesy Church Relations
Helen Young is settling back
into her home on campus after
surgery.
University Church of Christ minister Ken Durham makes no attempt to hide his admiration of Pepperdine’s matriarch Helen Young.
In the spring, on the first Sunday that Young was able to return to church services after a fall that put her in the Intensive Care Unit at UCLA Medical Hospital, Durham noticed her in the crowd and made note of her presence to the audience.
“I made a comment about Helen being back with us and the congregation broke into applause,” Durham said. “It was a joy to have our first lady back.”
On Nov. 3, 2003, Young, now 86, was walking up the stairs of her campus condo and fainted. She then fell to the bottom of the stairs where she fractured her vertebrae, two vertebrae had to be fused togehter, and was left unconscious, requiring surgery to fuse the bones back together. Young said the injury she sustained is much like that of Christopher Reeve, the actor who was left a quadriplegic after falling from his horse in 1995.
“I am very thankful to be alive and able to talk and think,” Young said.
Young was admitted to UCLA Medical Hospital where she would remain for about a month. Young said while she was in the hospital she was in and out of consciousness and doesn’t remember much immediately following the fall. Young said it was her daughters who kept the Pepperdine community informed of her status while she was there.
Her daughter Sara Jackson, senior advancement officer for Seaver College, said the time her mother spent in the ICU was very frightening for the family.
“My sister, brother and I were with her from the time of the fall,” she said. “It was very frightening how close she was to not pulling through at times and that it was a life-or-death situation.”
Jackson also said the encouragement they received from the Pepperdine community was very important.
“We felt very supported and loved,” she said.
Young said while she wasn’t fully aware of the support she received during her stay “I speak from a very grateful heart to all the wonderful people on campus who helped and prayed for me.”
Once released from the ICU, Young spent another month in the Encino Rehabilitation Hospital before returning home to her regular schedule.
Durham, who is also Young’s neighbor, was amazed at her recovery.
“Within a few weeks of her return home she was out walking laps, getting out being Helen again,” Durham said. “She just has an indomitable spirit.”
Young’s affiliation with Pepperdine began in 1937 as a member of the first graduating class of George Pepperdine University in Los Angeles. During that year, Young worked on the first staff of the Graphic. She would later return to Pepperdine with her husband, M. Norvel Young, in 1957 when he served as president of the University for 14 years. Young said, while the University has changed in location and size, two things that haven’t changed are the quality of the faculty and its direction.
“It is a stronger, finer school whose future is bright,” she said.
Along with the prayers of all of her friends at Pepperdine and from the prayer lists her daughters kept her on, Young said it was her own faith that got her through the difficult recovery. “Evidence of her faith are evident in every stage of her recovery,” said Dr. Steven Lemley, Young’s son-in-law and communication professor.
“It’s just everything to me,” said Young of her faith. “I was constantly praying that if God got me through this I’d promise to not fall down anymore stairs.”
Young admits that her recovery hasn’t occurred as rapidly as she had hoped.
“I have been very impatient,” she said. “I’m not as agile as I would like to be, and don’t do a lot of what I would like to, but I am very thankful to be doing what I am doing.” Some of the things that Young has difficulty doing since the accident include using the computer (because of complications with her left side), turning her head all the way to one side and driving.
She credits her children and Pepperdine University President Andrew K. Benton, with helping her to set up her house so she could function on her own by moving her bedroom downstairs into the guest bedroom.
“My children have been priceless in taking care of me and getting help for me,” she said.
While her recovery may not have progressed at the pace she would have liked, Young has resumed her position as an ambassador to Pepperdine. She describes her job as a public relations-type job in which she tries to remind alumni to contribute to Pepperdine in their wills.
“I try to say a good word when I can,” she said of her position.
Lemley expanded on her contributions by citing her willingness to have an open home to people from a wide spectrum of backgrounds.
“She has been a model hostess since 1957 when her husband became president of the university and since his passing in 1998 has continued to welcome people into her home,” Lemley said.
Durham agreed.
“Helen puts a wonderful face of Christian dignity on Pepperdine,” he said. “She is such a classy person full of depth, honor and kindness. If we all could be half the Christians that Helen is we’d be an even greater place than we are now. She’s seen Pepperdine through several generations and develop and has continued to go on.”
Durham also commented on Young’s readiness for the future.
“Her husband Norvel used to say ‘the future is as bright as the promise of God,’” Durham said. “Helen is always looking for the next thing. It can be with God, Pepperdine or friends. She is a living testimony to that statement and emanates that in her faith.”
09-30-2004