If you see him lost in thought or welled up with emotion and tears rolling down his cheeks, or he just bursts into laughter, he has every right to do that too.

If he stops you to share a story, it would be nice if you could find the time ’cause he’s got one hell of a story to tell.

The 43-year-old was literally brought back from the brink of death. In fact, no one expected him to be around today to share his powerful testimony.

On September 16, 2002, Dyer was involved in a terrible motor-vehicle accident along the Mandela Highway in the vicinity of Ferry, St Catherine, which resulted in the death of two persons and left him and the female occupant of the vehicle he was driving in a coma.

It was not until three months and two weeks later, in January 2003 that Dyer awoke from the coma with no recollection of what happened. But that was not the worst part.

The accident left him blind, unable to speak and crippled. He later got a stroke on the right side of his body that further complicated his condition. According to the doctors, there was no hope of recovery. And they told his mother, Inez Dyer, just as much.

Sent home

Dyer eventually began to regain a little of his sight, but not much more. Transferred from the Spanish Town Hospital to the University Hospital of the West Indies and then to the Kingston Public Hospital, he was eventually discharged and sent home.

“I was so distraught not knowing what to do, but what hurt me most of all was I can remember one day I was lying in bed when the doctor came and was speaking to my mother. He said, ‘Mommy, sorry to say, but you just have to face reality. Your son will not be able to walk again. He might see again, but he surely will not talk again’,” he recounted.

Dyer said his mother immediately burst into tears. Seconds later his tears started to flow. But he also knew at that moment that he was going to prove those ‘experts’ wrong.

“Although I couldn’t speak, I tried to mumble something to my mother to tell her to just humble because I will be back on my feet again,” he noted.

It was from that point that the young man gained a new lease on life. The praying power of his mother, brother, sister and church family, coupled with his willpower and painfully hard work that took years, Dyer eventually made a full recovery.