I’m Still Here

45 years after the accident that broke her neck and partially paralyzed her three weeks after her 18th birthday, my mother is no stranger to the difficulties of living as a person with a physical disability. “For 17 years I was like everybody, I didn't even get to enjoy my 18th, just about to graduate high school and then all of a sudden, you know, all that's wiped out, it's very depressing.”

The rainy Valentine's Day of 1980 is not a day to be forgotten for my mom. A typical drive to school in the passenger seat turned near fatal after an overcorrection from the driver of the vehicle sent the car flipping 5 times out into the middle of a field. When the car finally came to a stop the vehicle was upside down. The two girls inside were alive, her friend walked away, she did not.

Following the story of my mom through archival and current day photos of her day-to-day life, this photo story follows the visual arc of her life from childhood, post-accident, and current day.