Clarence Thompson: Picking Up The Rubble & Re-Building The American Dream

Hey, everyone, this is Kathryn with American Dream Impactor Show. And what's really extraordinary is this weekend I got the amazing opportunity to not only meet this incredible human being, but spend some incredible time with him. And I would love for you all to know more about his story. So this is Clarence, and he really has an extraordinary story about what it is to have a dream and to have that dream be shattered and then to really do what it takes to overcome and create newly, but not only for yourself, but inspiring so many other people and athletes to push through whatever it is to make the difference that they're here to make on the planet. So I would love to have you just share with our audience more about just your story and what you've overcome and where you're headed.

Good afternoon. My name is Clarence Thompson. I'm originally from Kentucky, and I had the honor of meeting these two great people here yesterday here at the show in Las Vegas. And I'm originally from Kentucky. Kentucky. Grew up there on a farm, but I knew one thing, when you grow up on a farm, you know one thing. Get off the farm. So went to college on a basketball scholarship, graduated Oral Roberts University and then went on to play professionally for a while. But in the meantime, as time progressed on through basketball, you learned, guess what? Basketball's not going to be here forever. So therefore, when basketball was over, had to put the college degree to work, unfortunately, and ended up marrying a lady from New Jersey. Ended up in New Jersey and then went into construction business with a college degree. The construction business was very profitable. Fast forward nine and a half years later or so, October 11, 2004. I see a gentleman broken down on the side of New Jersey Turnpike, exit 13. So I decided to stop and help him as he was in a shirt and tie. And to get in class at Oral Roberts University, we had to have a shirt and tie. So therefore, it brought back a lot of memories. So I parked down around the bend, I walked up and I said, sir, how can I help you? And he said, I'm not broken down. Goes to his pocket, pulls out of 1/ hundreds and says, these are yours. I looked at him, I said, are you nuts? You're going to get us killed. Little did I really know. So he tells me the story, he's not really broken down, that he and his wife had gotten an argument the night before. They were both highly intoxicated, and she took her wedding ring and diamond bracelet, threw it out the window, and the approximate value was $85,000. So he says, I'm going to Save my marriage, that's the only way. I said okay. So we did look for approx 15 minutes, couldn't find anything. So he hands me his card. I didn't know who he was at the time. Come to find out he had to be to work at Wall Street. So at a later point I'm thinking well if they were intoxicated, why wouldn't the ring and bracelet be 50 foot up, 50 foot back? So I turn around and go back at a later point, I'm up and I hear a loud noise and it was a three and a half ton truck come down to median, hit me from behind a pedestrian at approximately 68 miles an hour. And how they determined 68 miles an hour at 60, 67, gravity would have pulled me under. So it's 68. So I go up off his hood, off his windshield wiper, off the top of the truck and it shoots me up where I hit the light pole approximately 26ft in there. And I put 52ft on the other side. So our witnesses chased him because they assumed I was dead. And the authorities, they get him in a high speed chase several miles away and he's charged with murder. Because I had originally passed and during that time I had a little reel about my daughter and I all the girls times. So it must have meant the time. So fast forward a little bit. I get revived obviously because I'm sitting there talking, get revived, got taken to the hospital to where I had 17 blood transfusions, had a broken neck, broken back, all my wrists broken, collapsed lung, ruptured spleen, shattered tibia, coma 16 days, 11 surgeries straight, third day in a coma. Fever 105.8, staph infection, pneumonia. Read my last ride, it's gave me three to six hours to live. But I had a choice, to live or die. While I was in my coma, I chose to live through the life. That's a small synopsis of it. And once I come out of my coma, all I can move is these fingers right here. So through hard work, dedication, constantly pushing myself on a daily basis minute to, from a minute to half an hour to an hour to a day, to a week to a month, to three months, fast forward, you know, I developed courage and then I developed hope, faith, and then strength and then the rest was history. But to get to that, you know, I know that this story, and I know everyone has a story and life's not as bad as what you really think it is. Because when it's all said and done, there's someone out there, that's a lot worse off than what you are at this point in time. Wherever you may be right now, there's someone worse off. And you might think you have it bad, but you really don't. So therefore, push every day. And my story, stay tuned because I'd like to see you in the near future in your hometown. Absolutely.

And what's really exciting is there's actually a song that got wrote about your whole story that's going to be released soon.

That's correct.

And the name of the song, stronger.

Than before by Nicole Nichols, it's going to be amazing.

We got the privilege of hearing it, which I'm super excited about. So we are expecting some really amazing things to, you know, that's going to come from you. And just all the inspiration that you're bringing and the hope and the determination and perseverance, which is what it takes to be successful in anywhere in life.

Thank you. If there's anything I can do for anyone, any of you guys out there. She's got my email and all that. You guys, shoot an email through her or myself directly and we'll see what we can do. And I'll do my best to either get in touch with you or send you back an email to give you that hope and let you realize, guess what? It does start with one petal, and that's forward. And it continues on to your journey. It's never too late to have that hope, to complete that journey.

I love it. So for all of our viewers and listeners, if there's anybody in your life that you feel needs to hear his story or even have a conversation with him, it's really extraordinary. So reach out to us. Click on the links below and we will make that happen for you and for your American Dream. So this is Kathryn Bell with the American Dream Impactor Show.