I've been married to my husband, Paul, since 1970. Our daughter was born in 1975 and we have a beautiful granddaughter, born in 1994. Cecilia, our daughter, married Jason, October 9, 1999. After 7 y years of the two of them being together, I can now officially call him son-in-law.

Before the accident, I was working 2 jobs and going to school to upgrade my position in one of those jobs. It was a freaky accident by most standards. I was between our car with the trunk open and 2 full grocery carts. I had bent down to pick up my wallet and it's contents which had fallen out of my jacket pocket onto the parking lot. A car edged out of its spot across the isle of the parking lot, opposite to ours, and the driver though not going fast had hit the grocery cart which then hit me in the head as I was getting up from the crouched position. I was taken to the hospital by ambulance, Code 4 - that's sirens and lights - pretty scarey. The doctor in the emergency room said that I MAY have a slight concussion.

Two weeks later, still having the headache, I went to my GP's office. From there I was sent for more x-rays. Not finding anything, the GP sent me to a neurologist who ordered a Brain Scan. On reading the results he immediately arranged for a CT scan without any explanation to me. The CT was done in August '91. The neurologist said that I should contact my GP 2 weeks after the CT was done. But my headache was SO BAD I contacted my GP in 5 days. My GP immediately sent me to see a neurosurgeon, Dr. Anita North, who diagnosed the problem right away. But surgery was delayed because I was in the middle of getting dental work done and Dr. North didn't want to operate until that was done for fear of infection. That may have been a bad decision but she didn't want anything to get infected and I trust her judgement even to this day. It was another 2 months before all the dental work was done. My first surgery was on Dec. 4/91 - Dr. North saved my life that day with the placement of a VP shunt in my brain. A few days after surgery she quizzed me as to how I entered the hospital...I didn't think anything of it until much later when I read the operation report received from my lawyer. The CSF pressure in my head during that first surgery was at the point where I should have died on the table....and for her efforts during that surgery and the 2 that followed, in March and November of '92, I will be eternally grateful to her.

In 1995 I began attempting to receive Canada Pension disability because I hadn't worked since 1993. Finally in 1997, and again due to a letter from Dr. North to the Pension Review Committee, I received my Disability Pension.

In 1998, we finally settled out of court. Because it was determined that I had a 'pre-existing' condition of hydrocephalus, which until the accident in '91 I didn't know I had, I was not able to receive what I was actually requesting, but I was told that if I wanted to take it to court because of the pre-existing condition, I could possibly end up with NOTHING but a hefty lawyer's bill and court costs....so I settled for about 25% of what I was really fighting for, But I considered the alternative and consider that I did all right.

Life from the day of the accident forward has never be the same as pre-accident. My days pre-accident were full and busy...now my day is governed by how much pain my head is in. So I end up doing precious little every day. I will be on narcotics for the rest of my life so I have to learn to live with that and just be thankful for the small things that I can still handle.

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Pic. 1 - Proud Pa dancing with Cecilia
Pic. 2 - Jason&Cecilia cutting the cake
Pic. 3 - is Pa, and Ma, and little Celeste