[john1082]

MARQUETTE, Mich. -- Don Kromer moved into a fraternity house in January 1979 with a lot of help from his friends.

He needed all he could get.

Five months before the move, he had severed his spinal chord in a diving accident.

At the time, Kromer was a Northern Michigan University junior, a history and political science major, 21 years old and a quadriplegic. He was not looking forward to life in a wheelchair.

"My spirit was broken," he said. "My hope was simply gone."

The men at Lambda Chi Alpha in Marquette were his lifeline in more ways than one.

They promised to help him graduate. This was no small effort. They held fund-raisers to finance the remodeling of the fraternity house to accommodate Kromer. And they received training from Dr. Michael Coyne, then the head of Rehabilitation Medicine at Marquette General Hospital.

They had to learn to feed, shower and dress Kromer, as well as learn catheterization and bowel management.

"His fraternity brothers took that on," Coyne said. "It's a real example of what can be accomplished."

Now, 25 years later, Kromer is 46 years old and back in Marquette for surgery, and another generation of the same fraternity is again his right - and left hand men.

One member, Dave Glinsky, 19, makes time in his daily school schedule for Kromer. He shows up at 3 p.m. every day. He shaves Kromer, helps make him comfortable on pillows, writes notes for him in a journal, brings him movies and a daily dose of hope.

"Hope is very important," Kromer said. "Like: I hope Dave comes every day."

Another member of the fraternity relieves Glinsky at 5 p.m. for feeding, more care and company. Glinsky has made a seven-day schedule, and Kromer is well cared for.

"I've always wondered how someone could get through something like this," Kromer said. "It's faith, family, fraternity and friendship."

That combination enabled him to graduate from Northern Michigan in 1982. Then he went to graduate school at Arizona State University, got a teaching certificate and taught there for a couple of years.

Kromer lives in his own house in Mullett Lake, just south of the Mackinac Bridge near his parents. He's employed by Vital Care Corp., a home health care agency based in Cheboygan, and schedules nursing care for its patients.

He is also a bereavement counselor for Hospice of the Straits.

Coyne, who has remained Kromer's friend for 25 years, calls him "a unique and outstanding person."

Kromer is no less appreciative of Coyne and the men he trained - "brothers" he calls them - to carry him through his ordeal.

"I'd be proud to have them as my sons," Kromer said of the young men who visit him daily in the hospital while he's recuperating.

"We're just glad to help him any way we can," Glinsky said.

(c) 2004 The Associated Press.