Posts
Katie turned 9 on July 18, 1997. Budding into young womanhood, she began to cross her long legs and fix her long brown hair. She was growing out her bangs. I began to feel that this girl needed extra time with mom, so we went shopping or driving, just the two of us. It was delightful. Ever since her birth, she seemed to be a gift from God directly to me (Of course, I love all my children, but each is unique as is my relationship with each one.) To see her stomp her little foot and say, "Leave my mommy alone," when the big girls were back-talking, would make anyone smile. It melted my heart.
No, she wasn't perfect, but to me she was my little punkin. A math genius, voracious reader, poet, artist, budding piano prodigy and a bubbly, smiley, happy girl, she left our home too soon, leaving an unfilled void. On one of our shopping trips, we bought her a new bike helmet with a pony tail port. She loved to braid her long hair in one braid hanging down her back, making helmet wearing difficult. The ponytail port was a great answer. Where we lived in the Pacific NW, helmets were required by law for every rider. If our children wanted to own a bike, they were required to wear helmets. They complied, but what I didn't know is that they didn't buckle the things, rendering them useless.
That terrible morning September 5, 1997, my friend rang the doorbell at 8:30 in the morning. She looked really funny. I quickly found out why. She had witnessed a terrible tragedy. Our Katie was lying in the street after being bumped by a truck. It didn't hit her but glanced her rear tire. She slid into the curb, hitting her temple. On impact her unbuckled helmet flew off her head.
Airlifted to the closest trauma center, she underwent brain surgery to stop the hemorrhage in her brain. They shaved off her beautiful hair, leaving a huge C-shaped incision. Her sweet little brain swelled and swelled. Little by little daily MRIs showed her brain dying. She never woke-up. She lived 6 days in the ICU, before we removed her off life support.
Her coffin was sweetly lined with white satin. She was dressed in white with a white veil covering her huge, bald head. Delicate white roses draped the coffin. The funeral was lovely, but these things should have been for her wedding. When rain clouds burst just as we left the cemetery, I knew that Katie, my gift from God, cried for our family.
In this ward most remember a dear young man, who had a similar accident on a skateboard. He lived, but struggled mightily for a very long time. The week of his accident a group of young men from our ward including his little brother came to ask my son to join them for nightgames. Not one of them was wearing a helmet. When I inquired why, they told me that it was safe around our neighborhood. They didn't need helmets. Yet my the young man in our ward was only a couple blocks from home in our neighborhood, when he suffered his injury. My little Katie was in view of our front door. The fact is that 75 percent of deaths among children could be prevented with a bicycle helmet.
Please, while you're buying school binders, paper, pencils, markers, and books or new Christmas bicycles and skates, buy helmets as well. Parents, require your children to wear a helmet every time he or she rides a bike, skateboard, scooter or skates! Whenever they "wheel" around, they should be safe. Tell your children the story of our beautiful Katie. When they talk about helmets being sweaty or stupid, remind them that helmets are cooler than coffins.
