Hello Ocala! Meet Your Neighbors: Sandy and Mike Layman

Sandy Layman and her husband, Michael, at the Pine Run community center on State Road 200 in Ocala on Monday, May 22, 2023. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2023.

Sandy Layman is living proof that a person’s attitude is foundational to his or her well-being. Her life of faith and determination has kept her productive and happy when many would have given up.

Sandy is the only survivor of quintuplets born in New Lexington, Ohio, 75 years ago, when today’s medical advancements were not known or available to aid in multiple births. Sandy was the middle baby of the five delivered that day. 

“Why I was the one who survived, I don’t know,” she said, adding “other than it must have been God’s plan for me.” 

Her parents had three more children following the quintuplets. A sister lives in Ohio, and a brother splits his time between Ohio and the Florida Keys. One brother is deceased.

“As a child, I was clumsy,” Sandy shared. “I would be walking and would just fall down. I had pneumonia a lot and was in the hospital quite a few times and was often exhausted. It seemed as though I always had illnesses of one sort or another.” 

There was never a definitive diagnosis for a root cause of her health issues.

While in high school, fellow student Mike Layman asked Sandy for a date. She refused. She said, “I wouldn’t go out with him. I heard he had a police record, and I refused to be involved with anyone with a police record or anything that wasn’t right,” she related.

He asked again. Again, she refused. Then a friend asked her why she wouldn’t go out with Mike. Sandy told her the reason, and the friend told her the person who had the jail record was from a different family with slightly different spelling of the last name. He lived in a different area and was not the Mike Layman in their class.

The next time Mike asked her for a date, she accepted. 

After high school, the couple married, and have been married for 57 years. Mike joined the U.S. Air Force, spending the first two years in service at an Ohio base. He was then sent to England and was able to take his family with him, which at the time included their first-born son Dave. They spent two years living in England, which they enjoyed. His service was from 1964–1968, during the Vietnam War era.

Their son Dave lives in Ohio and has two children, a son, and a daughter. They added a daughter, Annette, to the family. She and her husband live in Ocala and have one son.

Their grandchildren are Zachary, who lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Kayla, of Newark, Ohio, and Chase, who lives in Coshocton, Ohio. They have seven great-grandchildren, and another on the way. All of the great-grandkids live in Ohio.

As a child, Sandy wrote little stories and poems for her siblings, and enjoyed the writing experience. After high school, she said she “fell into” a job at the local newspaper and was hired there and began writing of a different nature.

Sandy had a friend who was a newscaster at a radio station in the town. She told her they needed a replacement for her as she was leaving the position and told Sandy to apply. She did and was hired. She was also a “stringer” for the Columbus, Ohio, newspaper, the “Citizen Journal,” which is no longer in publication. She also has written newsletters for many businesses and organizations, including the Ohio Christmas Tree Growers Association.

This was during the era when women who worked in offices wore high heels to work every day. Elevators were not common, and she worked at an upstairs office. One day, when she was about 30 years old, she fell down a long flight of stairs. She said that was when she was first diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). She didn’t tell anyone about her diagnosis for 15 years. 

“I pre-dated the medications they have now for MS,’’ she said. “At the time, they were not even doing research on MS meds. I was blessed with a doctor who didn’t write me off.” 

He remembered a book he had that was about 100 years old and had an article in it about “Progressive Palsy.” The doctor made his own concoction of injections and medications and administered them to Sandy, and “they worked,” she added.

Her diagnosis began to make sense to her. All of her previous illnesses pointed to the disease but, at the time, there was no sure diagnosis for MS. Nor were there the types of medications that are available now for people with the autoimmune disease.

“MS is different for everyone,” Sandy explained. “Depression sometimes hits really hard. To those people who are active, everything changes. Now your body controls you.” 

With the medications she was taking, Sandy was able to be active with her children and she could drive and work. She was a good seamstress and made doll clothes for her children, and even made a suit for her son. Sandy enjoyed doing lots of crafts with the Girl Scouts and has done lots of volunteer work over her lifetime.

At the post office one day, Sandy saw a group of people and asked what was happening. She was told they were waiting to take the Civil Service Exam. If she was interested, she was told, just get in line. Sandy took the test and passed and was hired as a clerk-typist and later was hired into the public affairs office. At that position, she wrote for the Newark Air Force Base newspaper. There were many different tasks in that job, and Sandy was happy doing them.

In the meanwhile, Mike was in the excavating business, working for himself. He also worked for a company in Ohio for 18 years while still running his own business for 45 years. His business was multifaceted, excelling in fabrication and design in farm-related endeavors. The company he worked for, Anomatic Corp., was a manufacturer in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry. He retired from that company.

“I didn’t really want to retire, but I was getting tired,” Mike explained. He was sought after, even when he was retired. He said the only way he could get any rest would be to move from the area.

The couple had just completed an extensive renovation to a large farmhouse in Ohio. Sandy’s mother was living in a nursing home in Ohio, and she told Sandy to move to Florida. She said she didn’t want to go with them, insisting she would be fine where she was and wanted to stay there. The first person who came to see their house bought it, and they hadn’t even had time to get a real estate agent.

Since their daughter lived in Ocala, they had visited here several times. Mike didn’t enjoy the summer heat, but Sandy loved it. She felt better in the heat, and they decided to move here. When they decided on a home here, they saw an accessible one they liked on a Monday and by Wednesday the legalities were taken care of and they were under contract to buy it.

You might say, “and then tragedy struck.” At age 45, Sandy became paralyzed. 

She had been raising children and working. She felt exhausted. She was bathing her granddaughter, then 4 years old, and her grandson, then 2. Suddenly she had no feeling in her legs at all. Her granddaughter was able to get out of the bathtub and get herself dressed. Sandy said the 2-year-old “was a little guy but felt like he was 100 pounds. I couldn’t lift him.” 

She told her granddaughter to go outside to Mike’s workshop and tell him to come in. It was dark outside, and the child was afraid, but she did as she was told.

Mike came in and took care of their grandson. He dragged Sandy to the living room and propped her up against the couch. Her arms also became affected and were limp.

Of course, this ended her working days.

“There were times when Mike had to feed the children and me,” Sandy said, adding, “I don’t know how he had the strength and energy it took to take care of me, but he did. It was six years later that the MS diagnosis was confirmed with an MRI.

“Everyone started telling me what I couldn’t do,” she emphasized. “But I began thinking, ‘Well, what can I do?’” 

Sandy couldn’t move her hands or arms, but she determined she would work on it. She didn’t even tell Mike, but labored intensively each day to try to move just one finger.

“If I can move one finger, then I can move the rest of them,” she reasoned. It took months, but one finger began to move. Then the next. She was very excited and showed Mike. She worked to exercise all of her fingers until her hands would move. “It took about a year,” she said. 

Water therapy helped extremely well, so Mike bought and installed a unit in their home. 

”Basically it’s a six-person spa,” he said, and he remodeled it to be wheelchair height and it can be programmed as needed.

Sandy has learned much about MS and has much to share. 

“When newly diagnosed, many people just give up and believe they will be in a wheelchair, and so they are. They often give in to the disease,’’ she said. “MS entails depression sometimes. And in all honesty, there have been times when I might not have made it if it hadn’t been for Mike and my faith. What God gives us and puts into our minds is so important. 

“I always had strong faith as a child. At 13, I went down the aisle at church. Our faith challenges us. I always praise Him, and there has never been a day I don’t pray,” she added.

Sandy said she must have come by her faith naturally, as one of her grandmothers was a circuit preacher.

Today, Sandy is a vibrant and active part of the Southwest Ocala community where they live, as is Mike. She can stand, but her legs are weak and she can’t walk as she never knows if she will fall with the next step. So, a wheelchair is her navigational tool.

She and Mike have collected antique and specialty cars, and Mike still has a restored 1953 Dodge pickup truck. Sandy has a 1950 Ford, customized to be a gull-wing. That car has “beautiful specialty graphics” on it. They are hoping to sell this car, “but it will take just the right buyer,” they said. They have been to many car shows, and still enjoy it but do not attend as many. They were able to go to the Daytona car show this spring, they said.

They have been Scout leaders, and Mike coached Little League baseball. 

“We have so many friends I cherish,” Sandy added.

Currently, both participate in many committees in their Pine Run community. They are on the Social Services Committee, which involves being a resource for information for residents. 

“It is interesting, and many services are needed,” Sandy said.

The couple has been part of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office volunteer programs, and Mike is on the Pine Run “Southwest Cops,” under the auspices of the sheriff’s office.

“One positive about the MS disease is that we have three grandchildren who don’t hesitate to help anyone who has physical issues. They rush to open doors, etc. They are not afraid to help anyone,” Sandy said.

Ever one to help those in need, Sandy said, “If even one person will read this story and say, ‘Hey! I can do that!’ it will be worth it.”