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This
stunningly beautiful (or as her husband Peter says, "drop | dead
gorgeous") woman has overcome more challenges in her 32 years than most
people face in a lifetime.
Gracie
was born with her eyes so severely crossed behind the bridge of her nose that
they couldn't be seen in the orbs. This condition caused her to undergo five
surgeries by the time she was six years old. Her parents, Carol and Jim, had
great difficulty finding a surgeon with the expertise to perform the delicate
procedures to correct Gracie's eye problems. Finally, the late Dr. McKey in
the small town of Johnson City, Tennessee was located, and he performed the
operations. First, the intricate nerve procedures had to be completed before
the eyes could be properly positioned, and then the muscles had to be secured
to hold the eyes in their proper locations. Unfortunately, this left Gracie
with no peripheral vision and an undiagnosed reading problem.
Gracie's
determined mother, along with one wonderful and progressive teacher,
succeeded in keeping Gracie out of remedial and special education classes,
despite the sometimes cruel taunts of other classmates who made fun of her
eye patch. Yet, all of these experiences reinforced Gracie's determination
and tenacity, and she graduated from high school with a 4.00 GPA. "That
tenacity showed itself in every aspect of my life; I lived to conquer, and I
had been successful."
However,
this high school beauty queen's constant striving to push herself faced a
seemingly immovable obstacle at the end of her seventeenth year. On November
18,1983, while a freshman at Belmont University in Nashville, TN, Gracie
drove alone to meet her former vocal coach in Little Rock, Arkansas. She
never arrived. As Gracie drove down I-40, the combination of cough medicine
for a cold, a warm car, and the distraction of writing a song in her head,
all took their toll on her. Gracie became sleepy and her head slumped down on
the wheel. A trucker behind her saw Gracie's head go down and frantically
blew his horn trying to wake her, but to no avail. Her Honda Accord veered
off the road, struck an abutment, and flipped into a small ravine. There, it
immediately caught fire with Gracie trapped inside. Upon impact, her legs
were crushed and pushed over her shoulders. Nearly a dozen horrified truck
drivers stopped, called the paramedics, and used all of their fire
extinguishers to put out the blaze.
Approximately
two hours later, Gracie was extracted from the car. The paramedics rushed
Gracie to nearby Benton County Hospital , but her injuries were judged so
severe that she was rushed to a larger, more appropriately staffed hospital
in Nashville. Paramedics later said she was already blowing blood bubbles and
the chance of survival was slim.
Gracie
did survive, but her life was forever changed. The damage was extensive.
Gracie had 52 broken bones, multiple compound fractures, crushed ankles,
pelvis broken, jaw broken, and extreme blood loss requiring 23 transfusions.
"I
lost all control over my highly disciplined life. Worse yet, my own body was
unable to respond to the simplest commands without protesting with searing
pain. All the lofty goals I had set for my life vanished only to be replaced
with the goal of survival. Everything seemed unattainable, even the simplest
task, like feeding myself or sitting up in bed. A hope of walking again
appeared bleak."
To the
amazement of many, including the life saving truck drivers who visited, she
did improve because she pushed herself to the limits during physical therapy,
and "willed" herself to walk. After a lengthy recuperation, she
returned to college to continue her studies in music. It was there that she
met her future husband, Peter.
According
to Peter, he and some of his music students were sitting outside at the
student center on a hot day in August when someone nudged him and said,
"Here she comes." Peter went on to say, "I heard that Gracie
had experienced a pretty bad car accident and limped a little, but I didn't
know the details, so the information sort of went over my head. I also was
not aware of how beautiful she was. I looked up and dropped my jaw. I was
mesmerized, and it must have shown."
Gracie
had heard about Peter as well and set out to see first hand his quick sense
of humor. She sat down next to him and truthfully stated that her feet hurt
and needed to be propped up. Gracie looked at Peter with a straight face and
asked, "Can I put them in your lap?" Peter said a million things
flashed through his mind at that point, but he reservedly replied,
"Sure." Thus began a courtship that found them married a year later
in the St. Andrews by the Sea Episcopal Church, Destin, Florida.
Gracie's
tremendous recovery took a downward spiral, however, when the damage in her
legs won out. She was forced to
lose her right leg in 1991 and her left leg in 1995.
To
date, Gracie has had nearly 60 operations, including two amputations, but she
also has two beautiful boys, Parker 10, and Grayson, 6. Throughout her ordeal
Gracie has learned to set new goals and dreams. "Never again will I be
able to ski down a slope as fast as I can to be first, but I can ski!"
Gracie states that "The thrill of being the fastest or the first has
been replaced with the joy of being able to participate at all." Gracie
goes on to say, "Whether I'm walking out on stage to sing, snow skiing,
playing with my sons, coaching first base at Little League games, or even
rock climbing, the feeling's the same gratefulness. Because of technology and
these wonderful prosthetic legs, I can participate in so many activities
previous unavailable to me. Because of perspective, I can appreciate them."
Gracie's
dream of a music career is finally coming to fruition. Before her accident,
she toured two seasons with the Continental Singers throughout North America,
Europe and the Middle East as a featured soloist. In addition, she was a
semifinalist in the 1992 Star Song Records New Artist Search and a finalist
at Estes Park Christian Artist Seminar in 1993. Gracie's four octave vocal
range and Peter's piano skills have brought them before thousands across the
country as well as on national television. She recently finished her first
project entitled, "Gracie" with Big Sky Music in Nashville, TN.
Gracie
continues to focus on the future and plans to try ice-skating and in-line
skating next. However, now she states, "I no longer live to conquer; to
put it simply, I live!"
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