Rick Bell has an inspirational life story that he has written in a book, but the story of how that book came about is an equally inspirational story of how community can improve our lives.

Bell has overcome and learned to live with myriad health conditions including cerebral palsy and gastroschisis, a condition in which a baby is born with its organs on the outside of the body, and received a lifesaving kidney transplant from his mother in the late ’90s.

These days he works at Slippery Rock Giant Eagle and he was thinking he’d like to compile his life experiences into a book that might help others to overcome physical and mental challenges when one day, a familiar face came through his grocery line.

Andy Johnson, Bell’s high school guidance counselor, passed through his line in 2022 and told Bell he was writing children’s books for each of his grandchildren. Bell shared that he’d just finished his own book, and the stage was set for a collaboration.

Johnson read Bell’s first draft and then reached out to Slippery Rock University’s creative writing department and professor Mark O’Connor, who suggested student Alyssa Phifer could help edit the book. Phifer was paid for her work on the book while she was a student and, in her senior year, Johnson sponsored a scholarship in Bell’s honor and Phifer was its first recipient.

This is truly one of those situations in which all of the puzzle pieces had to fall into place correctly for it to work out.

As O’Connor explained, it’s not typical for his department to even work on outside projects, let alone to tap a student editor to work on a project with someone who isn’t affiliated with the university. O’Connor was attracted to Johnson’s enthusiasm for the project and the fact that the story was worthwhile.

Bell needed help to get his story out and Johnson appeared in his grocery line. Johnson reached out to SRU and was connected with Phifer who not only put in the time to work on the story, but was able to gain invaluable experience editing throughout the project. When Johnson and his wife decided to fund a $1,000 annual scholarship at SRU, the obvious first choice was Phifer.

If any of those steps had been missed, Bell and Phifer may have missed out and so would those of us lucky enough to read Bell’s book, “The Angel Who Overcame Life.”

— KL