Mathew’s accident
It was 1980 and a feeling of tranquility had settled around us on the farm. Mathew was in high school on the football team and working on the side at City Market. He made good pay checks, bought himself a car, and was able to drive it to football practices. Margie and I decided that we could leave for education week up in Provo. We arrived there and stayed over night. The next morning, August 20th auditorium where there was going to be a keynote speaker. Just before the speaker began, one of those announcements we hear came over the loud speaker, but this time it said “Richard and Marjorie Stucki, if you are in the audience, please go to the telephone at the receptionist desk.” Our hearts were filled with a bit of horror as to what had happened.
It was 1980 and a feeling of tranquility had settled around us on the farm. Mathew was in high school on the football team and working on the side at City Market. He made good pay checks, bought himself a car, and was able to drive it to football practices. Margie and I decided that we could leave for education week up in Provo. We arrived there and stayed over night. The next morning, August 20th auditorium where there was going to be a keynote speaker. Just before the speaker began, one of those announcements we hear came over the loud speaker, but this time it said “Richard and Marjorie Stucki, if you are in the audience, please go to the telephone at the receptionist desk.” Our hearts were filled with a bit of horror as to what had happened.
We took the phone and found out that Mathew on his way to football practice that very morning had a terrible accident. There was fresh asphalt that had been poured the day before, or so, at the bridge that went over a creek by the Tommy White ranch. With the proper moisture and temperature conditions, fresh asphalt can be slick, and it was. Mathew’s car slipped on it. His car went right against a big cement railing of the bridge, which cut his car in two and dropped Mathew on the pavement below. We learned that they had taken him to Saint Mary’s hospital in Grand Junction by ambulance.
We left education week immediately, stopping a time or two on our way to phone and check on his condition, but nobody was willing to tell us much about it. To learn more, we had hours of driving until we got to the hospital. When we went into his room and saw him laying unconscious on a bed rotating from left-to-right, right-to-left with pins in his head and weights hanging down to stretch his neck (where he had some broken vertebras), it was a terrible sight for us to see. He stayed unconscious for a number of days, slowly coming out, and going through the different stages that people with head injuries go through.
Larry D. Tice
The first night we got a motel and used the last money we had on hand anywhere, to pay for a night’s lodging. We could see that we were going to be there with him for months to see that everything went well for him. There was no way that we could afford to rent a motel that long. I thought who could give us a little help when we went to a strange, large place where we don’t know any of the people? It came to mind to call the bishop of the area right around the hospital. I did and explained our situation. I suggested there may be a widow who had a room to let out, a place where we could sleep, have a change of clothes, a shower, and fix a little something to eat. He said “I’ll check.” He called back pretty soon and said I found a place for you. There is only one condition. The lady of the place where you stay will NOT take any money for helping you. We found that this was a very lovely lady whose husband had quite a bit of property and was a sheep man. He loved to stay up on the sheep ranch. He would come down very seldom just to pay some bills and say hello. She had wished that he might have considered that this time of life she and he could have done some things together and taken some trips. They had grown children. Things weren’t going well with some of them. Again evidence that too much money is worse on children than a little too little. But she was trying to keep happy by giving service to others. She gave us a key, and we could come and go as we needed to. This couple had donated considerable land to the hospital to help build and expand the hospital facilities. Their house was right on the edge of the hospital parking, so we could walk from the house to the hospital very easily. Every morning, noon, and evening, she had a meal on the table for us. This very good lady had done the same thing for a number of other people through the years who found themselves in similar circumstances to us. Margie would be with Mathew through the week, when I had to carry on my bus driving, and then I would go over on the weekend. Sometimes we would both be together, or she would try to go back home for a few days. I would have to leave in time to get to my bus run Monday morning. We tried to stay with Mathew day and night for a while. We had car problems at times and couldn’t even drive back and forth, except Robyn let us use her car, which saved the day for us. Mathew had a tracheotomy so he couldn’t talk when he regained consciousness. He slowly learned to write on a little black board what he wanted to tell us. In time he got pretty capable of writing his messages. For a period of time, when he was going through those difficult stages, he would ask me every day to give him a blessing, and I did. We sometimes think that having one blessing is sufficient but we never turn down a request by someone who is comforted and sustained by additional blessings. Mathew was comforted very much by each blessing. We sometimes got interrupted when nurses would open the door to step in, but they would wait for the blessing to end. We were so long at the hospital that we got known by everybody, and they referred to us as the family that prayed together. There was a wonderful staff of doctors and nurses, including some very dedicated nuns. Our own doctor was a specialist in head injuries and very capable. We were very grateful we had someone of his background helping Mathew. Eventually the doctor removed Mathew’s trachea tube and closed the hole in his throat, enabling him to talk again. In time they wanted him to go to a rehabilitation facility. They felt that it was essential for him to make progress. He went, but he was unhappy from the beginning of that experience to the end. He wanted to get back to the farm. Consequently, we soon told the rehab staff “We know another month or so here seems like it would be helpful, and you feel it is necessary, but we would like him to come home.” Well, as soon as he got home, a miracle occurred in his progress. Just being with us in the farm setting where he was comfortable and able to get up and go and do things, he turned from almost a scarecrow to a very filled out happy and well person, where his faculties had all returned just about to normal. Our doctor was so pleased that he had one patient, Mathew, who had been left without handicap as so many with head injuries have to deal with handicaps all the rest of their lives. Mathew was very richly blessed. This experience reinforced our understanding that we are not spared trials. The rain descends on the just and the unjust as well as the sunshine, but Father in Heaven in his mercy, when we have been serving in the Savior's cause, brings about some remarkable things to see us through our trials. We had been blessed and Mathew had been blessed, very richly, by Father in Heaven as we endured this experience. When we finally got all the bills, the expense for Mathew’s accident was humungous, but because he working at City Market and was on their insurance plan, nearly every dollar was paid by the insurance leaving just a few dollars we had to pay. What a blessing! If that hadn’t been the case, we would have had to sell the farm to pay the bills, and we still wouldn’t have been able to pay all of that bill.
- This special tribute to Dr Larry Tice and the great staff there at Saint Mary’s hospital was written by my father W Richard Stucki
