By Paul Hogan
I walked into the extended stay motel, it’s early December, it’s cold and it’s dark. There are a lot of service/industrial type trucks of all sizes in the parking lot with mainly men in work clothes coming in and out at the end of a workday. I enter a standard sized, motel room with two beds. I remember a sink to my left filled with plastic syringe type barrels. This is where I first meet Faythe. She is seated in a wheelchair. She can’t talk, she can’t walk, she can’t dress herself, or feed herself. I meet her grandparents, Becky and Art, who were, and are, raising her.
Faythe had been a passenger in a single car collision that struck a tree head on. It was serious collision that killed the driver and severely injured the other passenger. A few minutes before the collision a police officer saw the vehicle and noted it was not doing anything out of the ordinary. As it turned out he was the first at the scene of the accident. He found Faythe unconscious and not breathing. After he removed her from the vehicle he put her in the “recovery position on her side and she began breathing but was still unresponsive.”
Now, three months later, Faythe, after suffering the traumatic brain injury and being in a coma, was beginning rehabilitation when I met her and her grandparents in the motel. Becky, her grandma, was her “go-to” for daily living, spending 10 to 12 hours, and sometimes more, with 2-hour feedings 3 times a day, along with: dressing, personal care, medication, transporting Faythe to and from rehab and everything in between. This is the daily routine, day-in/day-out, five days a week, for months on end, all while living in this motel room. On weekends Becky’s husband Art helped; however during the week he had to work, usually out of town, to keep the health insurance in effect that was paying for the rehabilitation.
Flash forward – see the photo? That’s Faythe, Becky (Faythe’s grandmother) and myself. This is the miracle. This is the day we went to court to obtain approval of Faythe’s settlement. Faythe is a beautiful, young lady with kind eyes. She’s smart and has a wicked sense of humor. She walks a bit slowly, with a noticeable hitch and is a bit unsteady going down stairs – but such a long way from being wheelchair-bound. Faythe’s going to graduate from high school next year. Becky told me that at school the other kids avoided Faythe. At lunch time she sits with the teachers, counselors and the school principal. That upset me, but then Faythe said it’s okay- the other teens just don’t know how to deal with her disability. What a lesson I learned that day from a young girl who was turning 17-years old in two days’ time. Faythe is a Christmas baby, born on December 23rd.
Becky said with some of the settlement money they were going to get dancing lessons for Faythe in order to help her with her stability and movement. I hope I get invited to a future dance recital as I love God’s miracles.
Here’s to miracles big and small in your life.