HOLYOKE — George Callahan, 85, is writing a tell-all book about his life, and the most intriguing element of his story is that he lived to tell it at all.
Decades ago, he crashed his car head-on into an 18-wheel tractor trailer. He’s also driven into a ravine, belly-flopped off a 100-foot cliff, had a near-death experience in another car crash and then beat bladder cancer.
“The craziest things keep happening to me,” he said.
Callahan was a traveling salesman for much of his career, and in the late 1990s, he was returning to Westfield after pitching security products in North Adams. He said he fell asleep at the wheel and when he woke up, he was in the direct path of an oncoming tractor-trailer. His car was totaled but he survived.
Years before that, when he graduated from Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, he and ten guys gathered on a granite cliff 100 feet above a water-filled quarry. They all said they would jump, but only three of them did. Callahan was one of them.
“We were reckless and wanted to do a daredevil stunt. I got as much of a run as I could, threw my legs out and belly-flopped into the water,” he said.
Callahan walked away from the stunt with only a blazing red stomach.
There have been other near misses as well. He drove his motorcycle into a ravine when he was in the Navy. And in yet another accident, a woman drove her vehicle into his, hitting him on the driver’s side of his car.
“If it had happened three feet closer to my door, she probably would have killed me,” he said.
Perhaps the greatest threat of all came in 2007 when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. A surgeon removed a large tumor from Callahan’s bladder. He endured aggressive rounds chemotherapy and after more than two years of pain and suffering, he emerged yet again from another threat to his life.
Callahan isn’t sure why he’s such a survivor — he says he’s not very spiritual. “I go to church every Sunday but no, I wouldn’t say I’m spiritual,” he said. “I believe in God, and I think people should appreciate what He does.”
When he was much younger, Callahan was an avid runner, competing in everything from half to full marathons. He quit running after 28 years when he developed problems with his right knee. He turned to swimming, logging up to a mile a day to keep in shape. Doctors say Callahan’s active lifestyle helped him survive cancer.
“I was blessed. My doctors kept telling me the reason I survived this long is because of all of the swimming and running I did,” said Callahan. He continues swimming today where he lives at Providence Place in Holyoke.
Despite leaping from a tall granite cliff, surviving a head on collision with a truck and a life-threatening disease, Callahan thinks his real claim to fame is swimming 31 miles in 31 days in July to raise well over $2,000 for St. Jude Children Research Hospital.
“I don’t want any children to suffer from cancer the way I did — to not be able to live a whole life. I thought the more money I raised, the more money is going to St. Jude, and more kids are going to be survivors,” he said. “I’ve already lived my life. I’m on borrowed time now. But I want those kids to be better.”
Callahan learned long ago if something is funny or interesting, write it down. And he has, chronicling it all in a 65-page book about his life.
“I’d say the book is probably 95% done, but it has to be edited. I have to put all my pictures in there and elaborate a little on the shorter chapters. I’ve got all this stuff, but I need somebody to help me finish it,” he said. “I’m afraid I’m going to run out of time because I’m so old.”
Callahan thinks now is the perfect time to finish and publish his book because of his successful completion of the St. Jude swimming challenge. “That’s why I think I have a platform. I never had a platform before because I was just a regular guy.”
With an eye to future generations, Callahan wants the book to bestow the legacy of his life to his grandchildren and beyond. “I think people would enjoy reading about this crazy guy, and maybe I’ll be an inspiration for one of them to take better care of themselves.”
