Tammy & Valerie

I do not know them well. I only met them once when we all had dinner together with mutual friends at a Thai restaurant. I thought they were both nice, and I liked the way that they were comfortable with each other. It was clear that they were quite fond of each other by the way they interacted; the way people look when they know each others next thought. I was sad when I heard the news about their terrible motorcycle accident sixteen days ago. It was a shock and a tragedy to everyone as the news spread among their friends. Broken bones and brain injuries usually happen in a motorcycle accident, and this one was no exception. In the first couple of days, it was not clear that Tammy would even survive. Each day that she is in the hospital gets us a little closer to having a collective sigh of relief, that at least now she will survive. I have owned two motorcycles myself, when I was younger. You think to yourself, "it will be OK because I am a careful driver". You never know when out of nowhere, someone will not see you and hit you. I find myself thinking of what must have been going through Tammy & Valerie's minds as the accident was occurring. Tammy tried to keep the bike upright, as it was skidding out of control. Valerie, helpless to do anything but hold on, on the back of the bike. I am sure they were both so scared. Incidents like this begin to slow down when you are in them, and seem to go like a slow motion movie, frame by frame by frame. I hope that they have no memory of this and I hope that they are not lying in their hospital beds reliving it and wondering what they could have done differently to change the events of that night. Tammy & Valerie were smart to have a health care surrogate in place, their good friend of many years, Donna. If there are angels on earth, Donna is surely one of them. She has taken care of everything from difficult medical decisions to feeding their cat, and everything in between. If good thoughts or prayers for them can speed up their recovery, they have plenty of that.