sobering lesson

As most of you know, I like to brag about the semi-rural location where my wife and I live. We feel blessed to have our home and be able to enjoy quiet and the wildlife around us. But, man mixing with wildlife is not always a good thing. As several of you know, when I send directions to my home, I always try to give a warning to be alert for deer on the road when one arrives at a certain point. That warning is not intended as a joke, it is serious.
I mentioned recently, I am in the middle of working to help the candidate of my choice for a high office. (shop time has been nil lately) My daughter, living in another part of Arkansas, is a paid staff member for that same candidate. My daughter actively uses FaceBook. Recently she 'met' a girl on FB who volunteered to help our candidate. The girl lives only about a 1/2 mile from me. Very handy. I called her to make arrangements to meet and for me to bring materials to her. She offered to make phone calls. Finding volunteers to make calls is very difficult. No one likes making calls for hours on end. Hard, frustrating work.
Hang on....I'm getting to the point of all this......
When I got to the house, I found she is severely disabled. A lovely 22 year old, very bright, girl who can barely walk with the use of a cane and has only partial control of her hands. Just looking at her is a heart breaker.
What happened, and it was in my subdivision, she was in her family's car when an oncoming car hit a deer that suddenly jumped into the road. The oncoming car hit the deer which flew through the air, crashed through the windshield of the girl's car and broke her neck and back, nearly completely paralyzing her. A terrible tragedy.
So, friends, when you plan to visit Casa Fusco, and I hope you will, and I send an e-mail with directions that include the warning, "from this point on be alert for deer", I mean it. I really mean it.
BTW, there is an upside to this story. The girl has kept her faith and her belief in America. She wants to be useful and is excited about helping our guy get elected as her contribution to getting America back on the track our Founders intended.
My sorrow turned to joy knowing that deer did not break her spirit, just bones and nerves.

A tragic but inspiring story Frank.

Deer hits are deadly, that is for sure, and I'm not just talking about the deer. I knew a guy that hit a deer that jumped off a ledge and landed right in front of him, he did not even have time to hit the brakes. The deer and this guy both died, the guy was on a motorcycle, he had no chance.

Be careful out there folks.

Many years ago, I worked for a supervisor in a factory that lived in a rural location. As he drove in to work one morning, a deer jumped in front of his pickup truck and pretty much totaled it. He walked away and got into work a couple hours late. That night, his wife came in to pick him up. On the way home, another deer jumped in front of the car and totaled the car. Again, all passengers walked way (thank heaven).

The same sheriff deputy responded to both accidents. He made sure that the second deer got butchered and returned to the guy that lost two vehicles in one day.

The more entertaining part of this was listening to my boss describe the conversation with his insurance agent after the second crash. Took him nearly 5 minutes to get the guy to understand that a SECOND car had been destroyed.

When I was heading to Expo in Vancouver in 86, I was living in Prince Rupert at the time and was expecting a good 20 hr drive when I hit a deer just 4 1/2 hrs into the drive outside of Smithers in a little place called Telkwa. It was the size of a big dog and it caused me to do a 360 into the ditch facing the other way. Lucky it was late at night with no on coming traffic and that I was in an old 73 ford Mavrick made with steel that allowed me to Limp back to Smithers on a wing and a prayer with no rad fluid (deer died on impact) . I continued the jorney the next day with a new rad, a pushed in front 1/4 panel ( drivers side) and a good tale to tell. The up side of the entire thing was that I missed two full sized Moose standing on the road coming into Smithers that would have killed me if I had hit one of them. Lesson learned from it was to take rest stops and, no matter what your rush slow down.

I'm torn between sadness and inspiration from your story Frank.

Of course I'm sad for what this young woman has gone through.

But I'm inspired by her will to live life to the best she can and her attitude. How much easier would it be to wallow in despair? And yet she perseveres and rises above her own situation to help others. Very inspirational.

It does remind me that I should be polite, even to telemarketers. No need to be rude to them when its much easier to either not answer the phone, or to utter a simple "No thank you".

Her attitude is inspiring

To get to my house you have to drive about a mile down a road lined with fields and woods. Almost every day either a deer, a bunch of turkeys, or coyote run in front of the truck. Gotta keep it under 25 mph on this stretch.
My folks were driving home from my house about 10 years ago and a deer hit the side of their car and crashed through the passenger side window where my Mom was sitting. They were OK but it scared the stuffing out of them.

Frank, one of my neighbors was killed in an accident that sounds just like the one you describe. The girl that hit the deer had just gotten her drivers license, and now she has to live with this tragedy that is no fault of her own.

The neighbor who was killed left behind a wife and 4 kids.

She has since married a friend of mine who was also widowed, so It has all worked out in the end. They seem real happy. and now have 8 kids between them.

Around my neck of the woods you better always have one eye roving for deer and turkeys. I see new deer carcasses every week. Some areas have 50 to 100 deer per square mile.