RANDY SEXTON and his wife Jackie were returning to their Versailles home after walking their dog Hera on May 31 “and something seemed to kind of pop inside my foot, and I just kind of cried out in pain,” he remembers. (Photo by Bob Vlach)
By Bob Vlach
Woodford Sun Staff
Before self-publishing a book telling his life story, Versailles author Randy Sexton’s life was changed forever by a medical emergency on Sunday morning, May 31.
He and his wife Jackie were returning to their Versailles home after walking their dog Hera, a Great Dane-Lab mix, “and something seemed to kind of pop inside my foot, and I just kind of cried out in pain,” remembers Randy, his voice still raspy from tubes being stuck down his throat while in the hospital for multiple surgeries.
Knowing something was wrong with his right foot, Randy took off his shoe and elevated his foot on the couch. “I pulled my sock off and looked at the foot and it was gray,” he says.
Not knowing what that meant at the time, he and Jackie were later told there was no blood circulating in his foot.
Looking at the foot, Jackie told Randy, “I think we need to get to the hospital.”
Randy watched the gray creeping up his leg as Jackie drove to St. Joseph Hospital. He kept saying, “This really hurts,” which is out of character, Jackie says, noting her husband never complained after knee replacement surgery on his left leg.
“Randy doesn’t complain,” says Jackie, so she was extremely worried because “I didn’t know what’s going on.” And she and Randy, who had played racket ball the day before, “had know idea” it was an aneurysm behind his knee, causing a blood clot.
Doctors at St. Joe knew what was happening, so Randy was transported to University of Kentucky Hospital so he could get more specialized treatment and a surgery to put a blood thinner down his leg in an effort to dissolve the blood clots and try to save some of his right leg, Jackie remembers.
By Monday, doctors did another surgery to remove Randy’s leg below the knee in an effort to get some blood flow going, Jackie says. When those efforts failed, Randy lost his leg up to the hip on Friday.
Reflecting on his 68 years of excellent health and looking to the future, Randy says, “I have other things that I’m able to do.” He can watch a play at Woodford Theatre, workout in the gym at Falling Springs Recreation Center and travel on cruises. “There are so many things that you can still do even after a horrible, horrible event like this one,” he continues, later adding, “I think I see pickleball in my future.”
Telling his life story
Randy wrote Misadventures of an American Vagabond “for myself at first because (there were) so many memories that I wanted to preserve as kind of a legacy, and therefore I guess (this book is) for my family,” he says.
“I feel like every person has a story” about life experiences “that would fascinate other people if they could just write it down,” he continues. “… So that’s why I’m excited about this book because I think it helps people clarify who I was, or who I am right now because of everything … I’ve experienced.”
“I want people to read (my book),” he adds, “because I feel like I’ve had an interesting life, and it shouldn’t be untold.”
His author’s note describes Misadventures of an American Vagabond as creative nonfiction based on true stories. That’s because Randy says he can’t remember exactly what was said during all his life experiences, but everything he writes about did happen.
More importantly, he says the colorful people in his life were all real.
“I’ve always wanted to have lots and lots of friends. And I do. I’ve got lots of very close friends,” says Randy. So interesting people always populated his orbit, and they made his life fun in different ways.
“I’m drawn to people who are somewhat outcasts, I think,” says Randy, who’s come to realize having interesting people come and go in his life led to a lot of adventurous moments.
He continued writing because he wanted, and really needed, to tell those stories. So he wrote about the time him and his best friend Philo got picked up by police for being out past curfew when they were 15.
The police handcuffed Philo and me and put us in the back of the cruiser. They put our ten-speed bikes on a rack at the back of their police car and took us to jail. We were locked up in a big cell with a bunch of old drunk men who looked like they were thirty-something. The cell smelled like vomit.
Soon, Randy was asking himself, “What other trouble did I get into?” while growing up in California. Those stories were other misadventures he’d write.
Reading Randy’s stories about the wild, and sometimes odd people in his life before they married, left Jackie wondering, “What’s wrong with me? Am I weird?” she asks, laughing.
Becoming a writer
Randy says if he hadn’t met Florida-based writer George Fleming who told him about self-publishing, “I probably wouldn’t have published.”
His first book, Reachable Moments, focused on his teaching career, and fulfilled a desire to become a writer. “That was what I wanted ever since I was probably in college, right after high school,” he says, “… but it’s hard to find anyone who will publish what you’ve written.”
What would evolve into his second book, Misadventures of an American Vagabond, began with Randy writing stories like a memorable bike riding experience to meet Philo – halfway between their homes in California.
“He was always in my life,” says Randy of Philo. They grew up next door neighbors. And even when they lived apart and didn’t always stay in contact, “He was always reappearing in my life,” says Randy.
“I loved him like a brother. He really was a brother,” he adds, calling Philo his main role model early in his life. “I kind of worshipped him less as I got older, but still wanted to be his friend,” he says.
Randy says he was aware, but didn’t write about Philo’s heart problems in the book. He did write about their last adventure together in Colorado Springs, and riding bikes like they were kids again – not knowing Philo was recovering from a recent heart attack.
When Randy received the call informing him that Philo had died, it was not totally unexpected “because by that time I was aware of all of the (health) problems that he had had, and that he was an alcoholic,” Randy says.
Driving down interstate 95, I reflected on the memories of my youth with Philo. I thought about the years that came after. Now my friend, and sometimes, nomadic companion, was gone.
I felt empty. A piece of me died as I drove down that freeway.
Growing up
Being raised by a dad, who “didn’t really know how to be a parent,” but tried, and a mom, who read books about how to parent a child, helped shape Randy’s life growing up.
Because his mom read Dr. Benjamin Spock, and followed his advice that parents shouldn’t argue in front of their children, Randy says, “I avoid conflict as much as possible in my life and I’m not very assertive, sometimes.”
And Jackie says her husband never thinks anyone has evil intentions. So when others see a wild character, he sees the good in a person who is “uniquely different” in some way.
Seeing the good in everyone he met allowed Randy to have friendships with people from many different walks of life.
My journey was shaped by countless events and many friends, both long term and short term. It’s startling to see where some of those friends’ paths have led them.
What’s next?
Randy returned home from the hospital on July 8, also his 69th birthday. A welcome home party reminded him of the many kind and caring friends in his life.
His “leg blew up” about a week before he was supposed to go to his high school class reunion in California, where he’d see some old friends again. While disappointed that he didn’t get to go, he looks forward to what happens next.
“Life doesn’t end just because you’ve lost a limb,” says Randy. “It’s really a matter of the perspective that you have and being positive and realizing there are people in your life who really care about you. So I think that’s what got me through this.”
Reading Randy’s posts about what had happened to him on his author Facebook page compelled people to reach out to him. Did you really have your leg amputated?
Randy wishes he could have added this chapter of his life to Misadventures of an American Vagabond. His wife of 38 years Jackie says that’ll be a story for his next book.
“He likes to write about things that are personal to him, and this has been very personal,” says Jackie.