I need your prayers

[Corry]

Nicole's mom and dad should be on their way back to the hospital soon. They ended up going home and getting some sleep. I had thought they would be coming back last night, but I didn't actually talk to them when I left to drive here...I'd talked to them about an hour or so before I left...I had to take time to calm myself down befoer I tried to drive on the ice.

I spent the night in the waiting room, because I can't go back and see her. I've been here for almost 9 hours now....hard to believe.

I just can't believe this is happening. I can still remember so vividly when she was 3 or 4 years old, and we would call her monkey baby, because she would climb the doorways of the house. Or how she would tease the chihuahua, Cujo, and then run, and he'd chase after her and nip at her diaper.

I keep thinking about the time when she was in 2nd grade or so, and her school had a Smokey the Bear poster contest that she won, and I went with her and her mom to take her to have her picture taken with the other winners....a lady walked up to me and asked me to come into another room so she could ask me a favor in private...the lady told me that the person who was supposed to be Smokey didn't show, and I looked like I was about the right height to fit the costume, and she wanted to know if I'd do it. I did...and we had to go out on the front steps to take the picture. I have bad knees, and was unsteady in the costume. Afterwards, Nicole told me she knew it wasn't really Smokey, that it was me in the costume, because when we were going down the stairs, I instinctively put my hand on her shoulder to balance myself....which is something I always did when we were walking through rough terrain in the woods around her house, and I was nervous and unsteady. I still have that picture from the paper up in a frame at my apartment.

When she was 13, I told her she wasn't allowed to get any older....and to this day, often when I see her I 'yell' at her for not listening to me, and growing up anyway.

...but I don't want her to stay 17 forever. I want her to graduate from high school, and go on to cosmetology, like she wants to. Her mom told me last week that she's getting a 98% in all of her cosmetology classes she is taking in high school....she loves it...she even already has a bunch of equipment that a member of our extended family gave her....a hair cutting chair...a hair washing sink....a dryer...all sorts of things to get her started.

...I want to see her flourish...I want to see her get a little wild in her 20's, and maybe get in a little trouble now and then, like most people of that age do. I want to see her get married, and start a family.

She deserves all of that and more....she doesn't deserve this. If I could trade places with her, I would in a heartbeat.

 

[cameramike]

its good that your remembering all those times, and she sounds like an amazing person. please keep us updated :hug::

 

[JerryPH]

My prayers to Nicole.

No one deserves to go through whatever pain and suffering she is going through now, and if God fates her to go on, she will and with great gusto.

My sister was hit by a drunk... this same drunk had hit 3 times before... first time putting a young man in a wheel chair for life, the second time destroying the life of an elderly woman, the third time killing an infant and criplling both parents in the process. Today he is a lawyer who still drinks. I am outraged that a person like that is even permitted to live, much less prosper.

My sister was hit while in the passenger seat on the very night she accepted the offer of marriage by her suitor at the time.

They were travelling about 50MPH (80KPH), the drunk... at well over 120MPH (180kph). He rammed into them from an angle to the rear of the car, causing her car to spin at least 6 times before stopping.

She was thrown out from the car and sent bouncing on the asphalt at over 70MPH and her only protection was a blouse and skirt. She was found 150 feet away from the car. 60% of her body's skin was torn from her body and she had severe head and brain trauma and uncountable fractures and breaks of the bones.

She spent 1 full month in the emergency ward, that is something unheard of.. and 8 months on the critical list and another 2 years in rehabilitation. She recovered from over 60 broken and fractured bones. Her ability to smell was forever gone and she had lost nearly all her childhood and young adult memories... forever gone. She was never supposed to have children... but she was alive. She survived.

Many years later and uncountable challenges surpassed, she is now the single mother of an AMAZING 16 year old girl that I hold as precious as you do Nicole.

To add a final challenge to her life, she has been recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

All this to say... I know where you are coming from and how you feel

Know that we all pray for her quick recovery and that no matter what happens, as long as she is loved, she will know it, feel it and respond to it.

Please keep us informed as to her status... and stay strong. I feel that you will be a source of strength for Nicole and her family and they need that more than about anything else at this time.

Family is everything.

 

[jsmharley]

Hope all is well, ya'll are in our thoughts and prayers

 

[hawkeye]

You're family is in my thoughts. Please keep us updated. You will have any support you need from us, anytime.

 

[Alison]

Oh Corry, I know how close you are with her and Aubrey and I are sending all our thoughts her way. :hugs:

 

[Fangman]

Our thoughts and prayers are with you - we know what really matters at a time like this - family and loved ones are everything.

 

[Antarctican]

Hey Corry...any news? Did you get to see her?

 

[Jeff Canes]

Oh wow, hope things get better soon

 

[JohnMF]

don't give up hope Corry.

She has lots of people praying and thinking of her

 

[Corry]

Things aren't looking good. Thank you for your continued prayers and words of support.

I'd write more, but I'm starting to go numb.

 

[EBphotography]

So sorry Corry. Try to keep positive, your vibes could do wonders for her and her family. Keep being the amazing cousin that you've been through her life. :hug::

 

[skieur]

Speaking from unfortunate personal experience, I hope your cousin gets a lawyer specializing in head injuries and a rehabilitation team in place as soon as possible. My wife and I were told to do so, two days after my son's accident. We were very glad that we followed through. It is absolutely necessary to plan for and secure her future.

skieur

 

[Corry]

Keep praying guys....don't stop. She coughed. A tiny teensy little cough....the nurses said not to get our hopes up....but it IS a good sign. A very small sign, but still good. Keep praying!!!

 

[JerryPH]

I was driving back from a client yesterday and was listening to the radio... some song came up about a 17 year old girl and the first thing that popped into my head was your niece Nicole.

No one wants to have their hopes raise only to have them dashed... but that cough could be the start. For my sister, it was the flicker of an eye lid that started her healing process.

Stay strong... she is going to need you.