by Breeanna Jent on 2013-09-06
Anyone who’s driven underneath the Mt. Vernon overpass traveling southbound on the I-215 freeway might have given a honk or two to Loma Linda resident Travis Arbaugh—because he asked them to.
On any given weekday around lunchtime Arbaugh, 18, and his mother, Kathy, can be found sitting on the bridge overlooking the freeway, where Arbaugh waves his hands joyously and passing cars and big rigs honk back. He’s become something of a local celebrity, often being stopped by passers-by.
“When people see him out and about they just love him,” said Arbaugh’s father, Ron. “He will wave and he takes the girls’ wrists and kisses them on the back of their hands and they love it. Everyone loves him.”
Colton local Tony Hill had seen Arbaugh on the bridge many times before he ran into Arbaugh and Kathy in person at the Walmart on Mt. Vernon Ave. in Colton a few weeks ago.
“When I saw him, I just blurted out, ‘Hey, you’re the kid who waves his hands on the bridge.’ And everyone around me kind of stopped, looked at him, and said, ‘Oh yeah—you are that kid!’” said Hill. “He enjoys getting people to honk their horns at him, and people know him by now. People crossing the bridge and people under the bridge will honk and it makes him happy.”
A few years ago, while on a trip to that same Walmart with his parents, Arbaugh communicated to his parents that he wanted to stand on the bridge and wave to the passing vehicles. When they began to honk, his parents saw the joy it gave their son. Since then, he can be seen on the bridge, doing his signature wave.
Arbaugh was born at St. Mary’s Hospital in the High Desert, where his family used to live. He suffered from a heart murmur, and at just three weeks old, he was struggling, Ron said.
“He had to be transported down to Loma Linda via ambulance,” said Ron. Not far into the nearly 50-mile ride from St. Mary’s to Loma Linda University Medical Center, Arbaugh’s heart stopped beating in the ambulance. Paramedics were able to revive him, and once he made it to LLUMC, doctors discovered that he had four holes in his heart and only one lung was operating.
“They told us that by the time he was two years old, we might not have a son,” said Ron. “And by the grace of God, on April 21 this year he turned 18.”
Due to the complications he suffered during his early life, Arbaugh is confined to a wheelchair and speaks only a few select words, but he is “happy as can be,” said Ron. “He is my pride and joy, everything I live for.”
Often, said Ron, community members will stop the family and offer monetary donations or other gifts, something the family does not take very often.
“We are happy the way we are, and we don’t ask for anything from anyone,” said Ron. “We just ask the Lord to guide us through. All that matters is that they can smile at Travis and he’ll smile back.”