A Place to Share

He made the mistake of getting into the back seat of a car to continue on to a fraternity party at another school. When this car hit another car at the speed of 87mph, three people were left dead... and Travis was not expected to live.

Flown to a trauma hospital in Roanoke, he suffered a crushed face, had to have his left eye removed, lost his spleen, crushed his right femur, and had multiple fractures to his left arm. He suffered severe brain trauma as well...his head looked like a gigantic football. (Roanoke Hospital was fantastic in bringing him back to us and we will always keep them in our thoughts and prayers.)

Our oldest son, who lives in northern Virginia, was the first called...as police did not have our number (we had just returned from living overseas in Singapore). Our oldest son was in hysterics as he heard the officer ask "for the next of kin."

Travis spent the next six weeks recovering in intensive care (neurotrauma unit). It was hell and then some, but God stayed with all of us.

He was transferred to an acute hospital closer to us, where he spent Christmas and all of January of '98. From there, he was sent to a subacute hospital in Camden called "Mediplex." Our family cannot thank the staff at this hospital enough! They were just wonderful in bringing our son around to as close to normal that they could.

Travis is now in an independent living center to relearn basic skills. He is happy, but cannot understand WHY some of his friends and family do not come to see him. He tries to make the most out of each experience and is so thankful to God just to be alive. We explain to him that it hurts a lot of people to know that he was injured so badly...and that some people cannot deal with this. As far as I am concerned, this is THEIR loss. Yes, I get hurt and angry as well, but have found that acquaintences have become BETTER friends than the ones we all thought we had!

It is going to be a very LONG road for our whole family. It breaks Travis' two brothers' hearts to see him with this moderate brain injury...he was the one who got them to laugh so much with his crazy antics and wonderful personality. Travis is still a great guy...'just a bit different now. We all love him to bits. Yes, God has been good.