Wow,

Where do I start maybe I will start from the beginning. Coming from a foster child, life was a ruff hard world to live in, and I just wanted to be numb to it all. I thought it would go away, But……………..

I had an accident 6/30/1987, There is where my life began. I hit a mountain. A passenger in a truck. I was flown to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, they saved my life. I was in a coma 3 months and paralyzed on my right side. I had my face all busted up. Let along a tubes coming from my nose and throat. I knew I couldn't speak or move but I didn't know anyone at first. I went to all the therapies, (not willing) but I went. Being in there I remember the doctor that was in charge of me, (we will call him Dr. Robert Nelson) He told my foster family I would not amount to anything but I could look forward to be either to a life in Jail, Dead, or Institutionalized for the rest of my life. I was sure mad, how could anyone ever say that. Looking back now I have to thank him. He most likely saved my life again. I left Geisinger and went home to my own apartment to live a lone, thinking that everything would be fine. When I did get my speech back, I always said life would bring me back to life. I just missed the most important person that would be my GOD. I lived alone. By my choice of course. I tried so hard on being like I was before the car wreck. Having the accident and getting a brain injury wasn’t the problem, living with it was. Little did I know the journey was just beginning?

Around December that year my body and mind told me I needed some help achieving that goal that I was going to come back to life on life’s terms. I finally decided to go to live in this facility. It was for a couple of years needless to say I made it for 8 months, I think. The place was very frightening; it was like being less than a person. I wanted to be the mother that I was supposed to be. At 23 I ran away fro the intuition on a Quadcaine walking around 30 miles back to where I had been familiar with people that I grew up with in Clifton Hts, Pa. I was looking for my friends that could make a miracle in my life and make things better again. After I came back I made my life and everybody else’s life miserable. The more the therapist said I was no good for my daughter the more I fought them. I didn’t understand why people were taking control, and telling me when I could see my daughter. That would make me so mad and I did let people know it. As much as my foster parents don’t want to admit that I was raped in the institution. Who would believe me? I did tell but everything was hushed up real quick. So I took things like usual and left so it wouldn’t happen again.

By this time I was going to Bryn Mar Rehab. Going to a place where I was really not liked because the way I dressed and the smart mouth I had picked up on my travels. I was all confused about life let along my life. So I picked up and moved on, something that came to me like 2nd nature. From day one I moved from house to house never knowing where I was going to end up. So why should this brain injury be any different. I was tired of people feeling sorry for me. I felt like why should they care know, when they didn’t care before? I lived with an outlaw biker cause I knew that would make people upset, besides I was having fun it was helping me forget that I had a brain injury even thou how can you forget something like that?

The next hospital I remember is Moss Rehabilitation Hospital. There I learned the most. I moved trying to deal with trials and of life on life's terms. In learning life’s lessons sometimes I learned them by my choices I made. Not realizing that the choices that I made would affect all people in my life especially my daughter. By this point in time I made a habit of using Heroin. A choice that I thought would take the pain away, well surprise me, you can’t. I had used the doctor to give me medicine to help with the withdraws. Going into a rehab for drugs helped me grow stronger and stronger till I was able to go on with life without drugs. It seems to me after my accident. I had to learn allot of hard lessons of life that had a price to them. Little did I know that when I was at ReMed Rehab that I had picked up hepitis c. Wow another fatal handicap. I had no one else to blame but myself. By this time I burnt out everyone who cared about me. They no longer wanted to have anything to do with me until I did something with myself.

Life is never easy. But if you want something bad enough you will find anyway to over come the obstacles. Sometimes it takes longer than shorter. My hard work paid off and my husband who was my best friend at the time, asked me to marry him.( He still is my best friend ) We married. A year later we would be celebrating our first anniversary living in Oklahoma. The one place that I started a support group in Garvin County, Oklahoma. I needed to be connected with people who knew what I was going through. I wanted to give back what was so freely given to me.

By, Liz Gallagher

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