The Awakening of HK Derryberry

My Unlikely Friendship with the Boy Who Remembers Everything

Jim Bradford, Andy Hardin

• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9780718081607
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Religious Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

The Awakening of HK Derryberry is the inspiring story of the amazing relationship between a successful business executive and a young, disabled boy with a dismal future. Little did Jim Bradford know the transformational potential of that friendship—for HK and himself.

HK Derryberry came into the world with the odds stacked heavily against him. He was taken from his unmarried mother’s womb three months prematurely when she was killed in a car wreck. After ninety-six days of seesawing between life and death, HK’s grandmother took him home.

One Saturday morning, Jim Bradford, a successful businessman in his mid-fifties, walked into Mrs. Winner’s Chicken and Biscuits and saw a nine-year-old’s head pressed against a broken plastic boom box with a crooked antenna. He couldn’t help but notice the long, white plastic braces on each of the child’s legs. Mr. Bradford learned that HK’s grandmother had been forced to bring him to the fast-food restaurant where she worked, leaving him to sit alone all day at a small table with only his boom box for company. Every Saturday Jim felt drawn back to the restaurant to meet with HK and began spending every weekend with him.

Eventually it became apparent that buried beneath HK’s severe disabilities was a spectacular ability. He was diagnosed with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM), which enabled him to remember everything that happened to him since the age of three. Less than one hundred people have been diagnosed with HSAM, but none of them have the physical disabilities of HK Derryberry.

In this moving true story, you will:

• Explore Jim and HK’s enduring sixteen-year friendship and the discovery of HK’s remarkable gift of memory
• Be inspired to look deeper into the way you see others
• See how God works in the lives of His children, despite their circumstances

This incredible story shines a light on the struggles and the courage people with physical, emotional, and mental limitations have. Be prepared to see how God works through it all to bring joy into the lives of those who trust Him.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Prologue: An Aimless Existence
• 1. A Twenty-Five-Cent Cup of Coffee
• 2. The Pint-Sized Pickpocket
• 3. Groundhog Day
• 4. “I’ll Never Forget You for the Rest of My Life”
• 5. Precious Pearl and the Family Tree
• 6. Quittin’ Time
• 7. Life-Giving Decision
• 8. Miracle Baby
• 9. Sunday’s Child
• 10. Reality Sets In
• 11. Borrowing My Eyes
• 12. School Challenges
• 13. Brenda’s Surprise
• 14. No Tree, No Lights, No Santa
• 15. “I Just Know Dates”
• 16. “Will You Stay Until I Say My Prayers?”
• 17. “Don’t Worry; Mr. Bradford Is a Good Driver”
• 18. Bluegrass and Friends
• 19. Cover Story
• 20. “You Know, I’m Famous”
• 21. The World’s Best Blind Pilot
• 22. Proud to Be a Rotarian
• 23. Divine Intervention
• 24. William Returns
• 25. Driving and Riding Blind
• 26. Football Rivalries
• 27. The Game Jersey
• 28. Dreaming Big
• 29. Sixteenth Birthday
• 30. Speaking to Thousands
• 31. The Flood
• 32. A Gift of Memory
• 33. King of the Prom
• 34. “I Think She Would Have Loved Me”
• Epilogue: New Life Awakening
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors