How I healed

Beverly and her husband had been my nurses in intensive care at Carolina Medical Center in Charlotte after my automobile accident in 2005. When I saw them seven years later, Beverly exclaimed, "Rose Turner, you're supposed to be dead!" She could hardly believe I was alive.

On that fateful night of Oct. 29, 2005, a pickup truck turned directly in front of me and there was no room to stop. I felt my body go numb. My head hung forward until I couldn't breathe. A kind man came and held my head up until the ambulance came.

I was completely paralyzed from the neck down. After a time in intensive care and surgery to repair my neck, I was moved to the rehabilitation hospital. Gradually, with a lot of hard work, I regained some movement. The Lord increased my strength a little every day. "The legs and feet come first," they told me. "The arms and hands come last."

After six weeks, the doctors said I had reached a plateau, so after Christmas I was transferred to the rehab wing of Courtland Terrace in Gastonia. The therapy was not as intense, and the Lord continued to heal me. I regained limited use of my body.

When I left the nursing home at the end of February, I could walk but I could not use my arms and hands enough to feed myself or take care of my needs. A care-giver was hired, and home health sent therapists to work with me. Later I went to outpatient therapy.

Now nine years later, I can walk, feed myself and use my arms and hands in a limited way. The doctor said my spinal cord still has a large bruised area which will not heal any further, so this is why I do not have full range of motion in my arms and my hands are numb. I am thankful I have recovered sufficiently to help take care of my 99-year-old mother and to do things with my grandsons, Clinton, 11, and Wesley, 6.

It is all because of the grace of God that I am alive today. I thank him for restoring me to this level of recovery. He has been with me through difficult times, but his grace is sufficient for my every need.