A thank you from Cheryl

The Gman 61 (July 22, 2006)

Could not answer your email, as I got a mail daemon back from aol saying:

Service unavailable, and Mailbox is full.

Sorry. I did try to answer you.


It saddens me to send this update. I know another family who has now lost both parents (my children's grandfather passed away on Oct 12, and grandma passed away just a few years before.)

It is hard to lose a parent. I cannot imagine what it is like to lose both, as my Mom has survived my father since 1987.

Cheryl, I am so very sorry that this has happened, and that you have lost her so young, relatively speaking! I will be keeping you and yours in prayer.

October 24, 2005

Dear Friends:

I will be away for another week, or so.

Even though I have not had an opportunity to open each and every email I have received,...I will soon. In the meantime, I wanted to thank you all so much for the prayers you have sent for my mother and my family.

It's been a terribly tough and emotional week since my Mom's accident on the 14th of October.

Yesterday, on Sunday, October 23, 2005, my mothers physicians

decided to replace the nasal endotracheal tube she had inserted last Friday with a percutaneous (neck) tracheostomy. The nasal tube had given her a terrible case of sinusitis. The reasons they had initially placed the nasal endotracheal tube and hooked her to a ventilator, was precautionary. They had been trying to prevent a potential obstruction of her airway, in the event the hematoma had enlarged that had developed behind her C2 neck fracture.

The hematoma, however, was slowly being absorbed as we had hoped and prayed for. Despite the 5 broken ribs, broken arm, broken neck, the halo traction and need for partial assist of a ventilator to prophylactically maintain her airway (as described above), she was progressing and fighting for her life. A life she loved. She was alert and was even trying to mouth words around the (soon to be removed tube) on her way down to the OR.

The insertion of the percutaneous trachea was to be a minor procedure. In fact, zero mortality percentage. However, something, went wrong in the OR, and yesterday, on October 23, 2005, at 11:05 AM PT my mother took her last breath and died.

My mother, age 75..had been in excellent health all of her life. Her face never had a wrinkle on it. She loved her simple lifestyle of helping friends, and spending time with my younger sister, and my sisters new baby, Mia, age 2 yrs old.

My mothers totaled car had only 5000 additional miles since the day she purchased it five years ago. Over all, my mother was a person who loved her local lifestyle and caring for her three dogs.

The accident which took her life, happened only 2 miles from her home when a man named, Martin Ruano Gonzalez, age 48, of Las Vegas, Nevada ran a red light at an intersection at a high rate of speed. His vehicle broad-sided her vehicle in the passenger door. They tell us the impact launched her car 60 feet from point of impact. He, did not have a registered vehicle, or an insurance card at the time when he walked away from the accident uninjured. According to the new Nevada law passed in July, Gonzalez will now find himself in jail on vehicular homicide. I am confident that the attorney's we have, will do everything to see to it that he remains behind bars for a long time to come. Sadly, none of the overwhelming grief of her tragic loss nor his jail time will bring her back to us.

In any case, I share all of this with you ...because I hope to bring awareness to the kind of accident that took her life. I ask you to please always pause for a brief second after the light turns green before crossing into an intersection on foot, or in a car. You never know what could be coming, in spite of your right away.

Most importantly, always remember to tell those who you care about on a daily basis just how much you love them. Life is indeed very short.

Now that both of my parents are deceased, the reality of just how little time I had with the two people who brought me into this world has hit me square in the face like a 2X4. It's a tough reality, but one, we all at sometime will have to confront.

Thank you again for your caring emails and concern. Words cannot convey just how much your letters and prayers have meant to me.

Inhale the beauty of Life~

Cheryl Ford RN

www.Fight4Terri.com