Closing Her Gap.

“It was a strange day. I got engaged. I became a homeowner. And almost died. I experienced a fight-for-life helicopter ride to the University of Madison’s hospital, on Feb. 19, 2003.

It was right by the Johnson Creek outlet mall near Lake Mills. He crashed into me. He was going the wrong way on a divided six-lane highway. He must’ve taken some wrong on-ramp.

How do you get on the wrong side of a six-lane? You get pretty drunk. That’s how. He blew a .28 BAC [(Blood Alcohol Concentration)].

The airbag hit me, resulting in TMJ [(temporomandibular joint disorder)]. Oh, and my nose was broken, but I didn’t find that out until May 2015.

I ended up having five shoulder surgeries and five knee surgeries. Eventually, my legs became different lengths from the many surgeries done on them. And, after all those operations, I had to wear ‘special shoes’ with custom orthotics.

So, whenever I wear a dress with my tennis shoes, it’s not because I want to. It’s because I have to. I only have four pairs of special shoes to wear, so my options are very limited. Any time someone starts talking about my choice of attire, asking, ‘what’s with her shoes’, they now have their answer. 

There’s a happier story from that event though. My husband and I got married the day I got out of the hospital. On Feb. 26, 2003, Jeff and I got married. Jeff’s buddy was the court commissioner and so, after a phone call, he agreed to help us tie the knot.

Maybe it seems odd we were married right away, but I figured, ‘what on earth would we wait for? I just about died, and if I agreed to spend my life with you, then what are we waiting for?’. He also had two buddies from his softball team he was close to, so he invited them as well. And, just like that, we got married in the living room.

Breathing is good. Progress, not perfection, matters. Closing the gap in academics, but more importantly, in life, matters. We can pick to laugh or to cry. Mostly, I’m trying to pick laugh.” (Mrs. Jill Cook, English teacher)