Always Have Hope

Picture of my grandma & my mom when
 my mom was in her coma

I believe everything always happens for a reason and not everything is as bad as it seems. My mother Regina McMorris would tell you exactly the same. She was born in Coshocton County on February 19th, 1969. When she was 17 years old, she was in a terrible motorcycle accident.

When my mom was growing up, she did not have a normal childhood. She was raised in a broken home. My grandpa and grandma always fought and they liked their liquor as well. They were very poor and did not have much. Since my mom's parents split up, she mainly lived with her mom. My grandma was constantly moving around and struggling to find work. My mom went to so many different schools when she was growing up. Being the new kid once would be hard but imagine being that new kid multiple times. She moved to so many different schools one year she ended up failing that year.

  Her motorcycle accident had happened in the summer of her junior year, 1987. She went down to Illinois with her boyfriend to see some of the family. Well one night before she had to come home, my mom and her boyfriend at the time wanted to go out and have some fun. They were drinking and decided to go on a motorcycle ride. They were riding when all of a sudden, he lost control of the bike. My mom went flying off the back, into the air, and landing on her head.

She was first taken to a Lincoln Hospital, then transferred to a Springfield hospital. When they realized how severe her injuries were, she was then was life-flighted to a Trauma Center in Illinois. She was there six weeks when she was in her coma. The first three weeks she was in a deep coma. Regina added "They told my mother that I would be a vegetable the rest of my life." She came out of the deep coma into a semi coma. Once she came out of that, she had to learn how to do everything all over again. How to talk, write, eat, walk, dress, brush her teeth, etc. She still had the majority of her memory, some things before the accident are still a blur though. She missed her whole junior year of high school, but she went back to school the following year. She graduated in 1989 in Canal Fulton,Ohio.

Picture of my dad in the back, my mom in the middle ,
and, my sister on the right and I on left.

Today she lives in Coshocton County, has been married for 27 years, has a nice home, and 2 children of her own. She also works full time at a nursing home. If you would see her today, you would have no idea that she was in such a terrible accident. She overcame all the hard obstacles she had while growing up and during her recovery. She never gave up hope. Regina stated "Even though today might be a bad day, you never know what tomorrow is going to bring".