Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story

Carson meets and is attracted to his future wife at a Yale reception for new students in Michigan, just before starting his junior year. But he “wasn’t ready for love.” His problematic finances and commitment to his goal of becoming a doctor are the chief reasons for not focusing on Candy at this time, but in addition, he is shy and has not dated much. One thing that draws them closer is Candy joining Carson’s regular church and attending Bible study. After being sent as a team to recruit minority students for Yale and a car accident that could have been fatal, they share their first kiss and become a committed couple. After graduation from Yale in 1973, Carson applies to the University of Michigan School of Medicine in Ann Arbor, with “no doubts about being accepted” (103). He is accepted, and while Candy finishes her last two years at Yale, they keep in touch by phone.

Carson jumps back to the summer before medical school, when Mrs. Carson asked her then-employer Mr. Sennet to get Carson a job at Sennet Steel. Taught to operate a crane, Carson is led by the manual dexterity requirements of the job to reflect on his gift of “extraordinary eye and hand coordination” (105).