Claude Selder

My daddy was an honest, hard-working man. His family was the most important thing in the world to him. Everything he did revolved around how it affected his family. On May 20, 1995 his life and his entire family’s life changed forever. Daddy had just bought a “new” used pickup that he was so proud of. He had just finished fixing it up just how he wanted it. Apparently, when he was driving home from work that morning, he worked nights, the truck overheated. He pulled over onto the shoulder of the interstate and leaned over across the seat to get something out of the glove compartment. At that moment, a younger man dozed off and struck daddy’s pickup from behind on the driver’s side. It crumpled that side of the pickup like a piece of paper. The other side looked almost undamaged. The man was driving at least 80 mph at the point of impact. I do not remember if his truck flipped but ended up upright in the passing lane. He went to the hospital with minor injuries and was released by noon. My daddy’s pickup was rolled several times into the median. His head crashed into the passenger side door. He suffered a severe closed head injury, had some internal injuries that were not as serious and a broken nose, among other things. My cousin showed up to tell us and we raced to the hospital he was flown to which was an hours drive for us. When I heard the doctor explain what was wrong with him I started to run away. My aunt chased after me and held me for I don’t know how long. When it was time to move him from the ER to the Neuro ICU they had my mom, grandmother and I ride up in the elevator he was in. I looked at my daddy lying on a gurney, his faced bloodied, blood coming out of his ear. This image will never go away.

After several weeks there, the hospital had done all they could. He had to be moved to a long-term facility to be taken care of and hopefully rehabilitated. He did go to a rehab facility but had little improvement. He was sent back to the long term facility. Today he is still in a long-term facility, a different one though. He is in a minimally conscious coma. He sits in a wheelchair all day long, staring, looking around. Sometimes he can feed himself; sometimes he is able to mutter some words. He is semi aware of his surroundings. He just sits there day after day, week after week, year after year thinking. What he is thinking about I don’t know. I can only imagine. This man is my hero, my daddy. He was just trying to come home from work so he could take a nap and then spend the afternoon with his family. Now, this is his life. I have finally, after years of letters to doctors and organizations with absolutely no response, possibly found someone that can help him. Maybe bring some of my daddy back. All of this heartache, all the tears, the anger, rage, evil thoughts because of a man that did not have sense enough to pull over or get some coffee, something, anything. He is living his life just fine now. My daddy is living in a shell and has no idea how to escape or even know why he is even there. It doesn’t matter how many times you catch yourself dozing off, it just takes that one time that can change a family’s life forever.

— Submitted by Christy Selder