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The Awakening of H.K. Derryberry

My Unlikely Friendship with the Boy Who Remembers Everything

By Jim Bradford Andy Hardin

Length
5 hrs and 48 mins
Release date
09-13-16
Language
English
Rating
4.9(10)

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Publisher’s Summary

Audie Award, Inspirational and Faith Based Nonfiction, 2017

The Awakening of HK Derryberry is the inspiring story of how one man was willing to step out of his upper-middle-class world into the life of 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 96 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, happens into Mrs. Winner’s Chicken and Biscuits and sees a nine-year-old’s head pressed down against a black plastic boom box with a crooked antenna and three strips of silver duct tape stretched across the battery cover. He can’t help but notice the long, white plastic braces on each of the child’s legs. Mr. Bradford learns that HK’s grandmother is forced to bring him to the fast-food restaurant where she works, leaving him to sit alone all day at a small table, with only his boom box for company. On subsequent Saturdays Jim feels drawn back to the restaurant to meet with HK and begins spending every weekend with him. 

Eventually it becomes apparent that buried beneath HK’s severe disabilities is one spectacular ability. He is diagnosed with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM), which involves superlative powers of recollection that enable him to remember everything that has happened to him since the age of three. Less than 100 people have been diagnosed with HSAM, but none of them have the physical disabilities of HK Derryberry. 

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Details

Narrator
Milton Bagby
Length
5 hrs and 48 mins
Release date
09-13-16
Language
English
Category
Biographies & Memoirs People with Disabilities

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Listener Reviews

4.9 4.9(10 reviews)
  • 5 ★ 9
  • 4 ★ 1
  • 3 ★ 0
  • 2 ★ 0
  • 1 ★ 0
  1. 5.0(1)

    HK--You little pick-pocket!

    Wonderful, beautiful, true story reminding us all of what's really important. Thank you HK for helping us to SEE. Thank you Pearl for sharing him with Jim. And thank you Jim for sharing him with the rest of us. No telling how many more hearts the "little pick-pocket" will steal with his story! loved every word and moment of it.

    Donna Ahner · September 15, 2023

  2. 5.0(1)

    Life-changing

    This is the type of story we all need to hear. A story of how one man saw potential in a blind boy with multi disabilities that would change both of their lives forever.

    Chanel Villarreal · November 13, 2022

  3. 5.0(1)

    Thanks HK!

    You helped me understand how blessed I am. Thanks HK! I look forward to introducing my family to you sometime at church.

    M. J. Christensen · October 15, 2022

  4. 5.0(1)

    Amazing story....

    I had the luxury of meeting HK and Mr. Bradford as they were guest speakers at my office. The book is great but not replaces actually meeting HK. If you ever get the chance I strongly recommend it!

    Lizbeth Corbin · November 25, 2021

  5. 4.0(1)

    touching and inspiring!

    This is what happens when someone chooses to get involved in someone else's life rather than just continue on with the ease of retirement and comfortable living well-earned. The author notices a young boy hanging out in a diner for many hours on end and takes an interest. The boy is blind and one leg is shorter than the other. Spending so much time alone has stunted his social skills also, so people shy away from him. His caretaker grandmother lives hand to mouth, and has no resources to give him more. The crux is not about solving problems with money (although that always helps), but rather getting to know people and really caring. Many lives were changed for the better as a result of this man's odd curiosity about a little, strange boy. Retirement didn't end up as he had planned, but he wouldn't trade it for the world. The story is heartening and touching, but is written a tad amateurishly, hence the loss of one star. The narration is wonderful, the narrator perfectly delivering the man's age and temperament. This is a delightful story to warm the cockles of your heart.

    Shawna Munoz · October 6, 2021

  6. 5.0(1)

    Grace and Friendship

    What made the experience of listening to The Awakening of H.K. Derryberry the most enjoyable?

    The way that 'Mr.Bradford' took no credit for who H.K. turned out to be. He just walked beside him and guided him to new discoveries about himself, and lead him through example.

    What was one of the most memorable moments of The Awakening of H.K. Derryberry?

    When Grammy Pearl lost her house. That stabbed me right in my heart. I could feel how worn down and overwhelmed she was at that point in her life.

    Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

    Both times that H.K. cried. What courageous moments that first time was considering the reason he cried. He dared to be vulnerable. The second time was, I'm sure, the result of uncertainty and fear of something very unfamiliar for Pearl. God bless H.K.'s acceptance of what is. Of what happened.

    Any additional comments?

    I loved this story of this unlikely kinship because it spoke of grace without being too churchy. I searched online and found all of the speaking I could find. How uplifting! And how giving Jim's wife was! She likely thought he was nuts to get so attached to quickly to H.K....until she got bitten, and smitten. I would have too.

    Gregory C. Lovaas · October 18, 2020

  7. 5.0(1)

    You'll enjoy.

    This book humbles you, inspires you, and reveals God's love and blessings available to us.

    Martina Underwood · November 8, 2019

  8. 5.0(1)

    Love! Love! Love!

    I absolutely love this sweet story of H.K. Derryberry. Made me laugh and cry and just want to be kinder and to see with my heart.

    Shelbie Cash · September 2, 2019

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