The phone is ringing on a busy, yet regular morning.  “There’s been an accident”. 

Every parent’s nightmare!

Story spoken from Linda’s own words:

“I was biking to work in August and it was a normal start to a 7 am call to go work at the local reserve in Salmon Arm, British Columbia.  My job there, was to weed their extensive garden beds.

Everything seemed fine until I got hit by a truck.  I don’t remember anything from this day, but this is what has been pieced together from the driver and police reports.

I left on my normal route and was biking on the wrong side of the road, facing oncoming traffic. On busy roads with lots of traffic, I thought this is was the safest way so that I could see oncoming traffic.

When the truck hit me, I went up in the air and came down on the hood of the truck.  My head hit the windshield.  The driver hit the brakes and I flew about 30 feet.  He got out of the truck and he found me, not breathing.  He slightly turned my head until my breathing resumed.

A friend of the family was the paramedic who did the call.  I was stabilized and then was taken to Vernon.  I was told that I was going to die the first night, my injuries were too much.  My dad and the elders from his church anointed me with oil that night because they thought I was going to die.  My first surgery was for my leg and I had a 12 inch steel plate and 12 pins inserted.  I was then sent to Kelowna for brain surgery because of my head hitting the windshield.  I was then transferred back to Vernon for my leg after a few days.

My first memories are the ride back to Vernon from Kelowna. They had to collapse the traction on my leg and I remember the pain. Collapsing the traction meant the weights were not pulling the bones back in each direction, everything including the weights were resting on my leg.

My second memory is in my room and it’s dark and I see the hallway is light.

My mom stayed by my side until I was discharged after 35 days in the hospital.  Several of my injuries were not fixed.  My left middle finger will not straighten, my left shoulder is permanently dislocated and has a bump sticking out of it.  With all the surgeries to my leg I had the ugliest walking brace and required an old persons Hush Puppy shoe with a heel on it!  Cringe!  For school, I had a teacher come into our house.  

As the years have passed, I have had some ongoing issues.  My shoulder still has a protrusion but it doesn’t hurt.  I had my knee replaced about 10 years ago and the hardware is now loose and it hurts but to replace it would be worse than the initial surgery.

I have asked myself a thousand times why I couldn’t have been 30 seconds slower that day.  He would have passed in front of me and gone down another road.  My earliest thoughts were positive.  I was young and told that I would heal mostly from all this and life would go on.  The whole leg injury was the longest journey.  Being bed ridden, walking cast, multiple surgeries and the final news that your leg is now over 1-3/4 inches shorter than the other.  That was super heart-breaking news!

As for the memory loss? I have zero memories. Mom and dad kept amazing photo albums and that is what I rely on for my first seventeen years of my life. The nasty perms mom gave me, the sports I did, sibling rivalries, piano playing along with a million other activities — all those memories are gone. When I think I have a memory, it’s from a picture. I would have to really think if there are any concrete memories.”

When I first went to visit Linda, I remember this story with strange clarity.  I think I kept this close to me because it really impacted me that I could have lost her without ever meeting her.  Having her back in my life has brought fullness to my life.  

Hug those sisters!