I was in the Military for 21 years. In 1990 I became a retired Air Force Master Sargeant. After traveling all over the world I found the love of my life in my own back yard, I had just finished a tour in the azores and came back home for a 30 day leave before going on to Clovis Air Force Base, New Mexico. While I was home a friend of mine from my school days arranged a blind date with a friend of his wife's friend,MaryAnne. We went out on the date and I fell in love the first time I saw her.. She was the most beautiful girl I has ever met, I asked her to marry me the next day,when she said yesI was in heaven. It was love at first sight and my feelings for her have grown stronger over the years, it seems impossible to me sometimes but she has grown more lovely before my eyes as these years together have gone by. Today, I am the luckiest man in the universe not only is she the love of my life, but since my TBI she has stayed by my side and helped me cope with all the difficulities of this world. She is my shelter in the storms of life, my very own guardian angel.

In 1994 when my son was 19 and my daughter was 15 we bought a house in the country. It is basically a good house but it needed a lot of work and it has a pond. Which at the time was a good selling point since I loved to fish and work around the house. Now only half of the repairs that need to be done are finished I wonder if I will ever be able to finish or should I sell it and buy a newer home that don't require so much upkeep. MaryAnne and I will have to make some decisions together as we always do.

I am currently on leave without pay from the Frenchburg Job Corps Academy. I had a car accident on January 12th 2001 on my way to work about two miles from the center. I was in a hurry and passed two cars, I went around a curve and came upon several deer in the road, while trying to miss them I lost control of the car and left the roadway. I ended up hitting a tree about six foot off the ground. The drivers of the cars I passed were people I worked with, They stopped and called the Rescue Squad and they used the Jaws of Life to cut me out of the car. I was ground lifed to the Job Corps Academy, from there I was Air lifted to UK Hospital. I was diagnosed with a severe traumatic brain injury,which would require extensive rehabilitation over an extended period of time. As with any TBI no one knows how long the healing process will be.

I stayed in a coma until the 27th of January when I started to respond to my suroundings, at this point the feeding tube came dislodged and the liquid diet, medicines, water, etc. went into my body cavity and contaminated it. I rapidly declined and had to have emergency surgery on the 29th of January. I was in cridical condition for two days. I remained in a coma for another two weeks. When I came out of the coma I couldn't talk, walk, or communicate at all. I was in an infantile stage.

I was sent to Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital on the 23rd of February. I communicated very little. My 50th birthday was on the 25th of February, I don't remember it. I stayed at Cardinal Hill for 118 days and came home on the 9th of May 2001.

MaryAnne took a leave of absence because I required 24 hour supervision upon release from the hospital. I could set up well and do tranfers with help. I could not dress, walk, or go to the bathroom by myself in fact I wore depends day and night. I had to have heparin injections and the incision in my stomach hadn't healed completely and the packing needed to be changed twice a day.

I started therapy at Saint Claire Hospital in late May of 2001. When I started I could barely stand with help. I had to be constantly supervised. I couldn't recall that I was retired Air Force or even the ages of my children. I always felt I had an assignment to Japan and I was going to be listed as AWOL.

I have a problem with Spasticity in the left side of my body and I've lost the hearing in my right ear.This is hard for me to remember because I hear a constant roar in my ear that gets very unnerving at times. I'm told by the doctors that the sound is imprinted on my brain and will never go away. The nerve damage in my right ear has caused a multitude of problems with my balance and vertigo.

On the 13th of July my wife and I were invited to the Job Corps Academy for a pot luck lunch in my honor. I was more then a little nervous about seeing the people I had worked with I didn't know if I would remember their names or say something foolish but MaryAnne assured me the people I worked with really wanted to see me and would understand. I would also be seeing the two women who helped save me that morning. The day went off without a hitch my fears were nothing and seeing thr people I worked withwho genuinely cared for me helped me to some extent put my accident into some prospective.

During the course of this year I had therapies four days a week. Occupational and Speech therapies I did with very little difficulty. Physical Threapy was a different story I had a tendency to flood halfway through the session which I never remembered doing. I get E-mail now and then that brings to mind the things that have happened and the people I worked with which is nice because I miss working. Being off work sounds good until you have done it in my circumstances then it gets old fast. I do admit there are things I love about it spending time with MaryAnne is great but I hope she is not suffering to much putting up with me. I forget sometimes that I don't have to go to work and ask her when I have to go back and I'm sure she gets tired of me asking her questions about my life, but then life is confusing for me at times. Memories are like dreams and dreams like memories, which is difficult to straighten out as you might guess. Sometimes I see my memory, as a gaint chalkboard with snippets of my life written out on it but no dates and times, so as you might guess it becomes very strange and disconnected at times.

If I didn't have MaryAnne to keep me straight I would really be a mess. She helps me keep my world straight and keeps me going in the right direction.

Billy J Curd (written with the help of my wife MaryAnne)