Your Stories

My accident happened On January 24th 1998. I was a correctional officer and was going to do my yearly qualification on the range. I woke up that moring and picked up the phone to call in but then remembered that I was going to be at the firing range (I loved doing that) so I decided not to. After getting to work and grabbing one of the state vehicles I headed out to the range, but never made it there. I hit a patch of black ice and lost control of my vehicle (that's all I remember). I was told that my vehicle flipped three time and I was thrown out onto the interstate. I remember waking up in the hospital and the doctors telling me that my back was broken and I was paralyzed from the waiste down and that I would never walk again. Talk about a life changing moment!! I was a single mother with two young children. I was all they had (as far as a parent went). So I had to pick myself up and keep of going. If not for myself then for my children. It wasn't easy and every now and then I still have my moments but I can honestly say my life in better now then before my accident. I able to be home with my kids instead of working ALL the time try to make ends meet. I am also going to school to become a social worker so I can roll into the rooms of the newly injured and let them and their families know that this is still life after a spinal cord injury.