Just a quick note to thank everyone for the expressions of support and love for both my daughter and me.  My daughter has her “Ma” to baby her and lots of doctors to put her back together again, so the love and hugs from the Booman Tribune community seems like a special present just for me – which I both need and appreciate right now.

Ryan was riding her bike to class yesterday afternoon on her college campus, crossing an intersection with the light, when she was hit by a pickup truck turning left, which failed to yield to her.  He says he didn’t see her as he was pulled way up under the traffic light waiting for oncoming traffic to clear.  

She saw the truck and knew it was going to hit her but she couldn’t do anything to avoid it.  She said time slowed down just like it does in the movies and she had time to wonder about how badly she’d be hurt, how she’d catch up if she missed classes and that she ought to have been wearing a helmet.

The impact threw her onto the hood of the large truck and when he finally slammed on his brakes she then slid off, headfirst, onto the street.

She has four broken bones, two in her lovely face – her nose and the bone directly under her nose which holds her front teeth in place. Her wrist and one of the long toe bones on the top of her foot are also broken.  

Several of her teeth are broken and the two front ones are pushed back 15 degrees.  After three years of wearing braces she had just recently gotten them off and was really pleased to have a beautiful smile.

I’m using this photo of her from last month because this is how I’d like to picture her – currently she’s sort of scary looking and unrecognizable to me.  I can understand how that family in Michigan could have stayed by the bedside of another girl thinking it was her after a car accident.  

So, she is home with us now and really worried about missing her classes.  She has ADD and has learned to compensate by being very methodically organized, writing lists and adhering to schedules.  She’s never had an easy time catching up.

In the next two days we have to see an ENT for her broken nose, an orthopedist for her broken wrist and toes, her orthodontist to try to move the two front teeth back into place and a dentist to try to repair the broken ones.

On a side note, but probably the most important point I want to make, she had just gotten her bike repaired and picked it up from the bike shop.  She planned to ride it to her late afternoon class and then go buy a helmet.  We are so very lucky that she didn’t sustain horrible head injuries or lose her life when her head hit the ground.  

I appreciate so much the thoughts and good wishes of everyone here at BT.  You’re all very dear to me.