Editor’s note: Shana Carmichael, a Moultrie native living in Macon, was injured in a two-car collision six weeks ago in Macon. Her two daughters were seriously hurt. This story tells of how the Colquitt, Bibb and Jones county communities have offered help to the family.

Shana is the daughter of Johnnie and Jay Carmichael and Gail Yancey, all of Moultrie; her sister is Katrina Adderton, and her stepbrothers are Sean Bowers and Dusty Brazel, all of Moultrie; and her grandparents are Johnnie and Frances Carmichael of Moultrie.

The girls’ father, Shana’s ex-husband, David Sinclair also hails from Moultrie; his grandparents, Hinton and Cheryl Sinclair, live here as does his sister, Laurie Doyan and her husband, Clayton.



By Chuck Thompson

The Macon Telegraph



When Shana Carmichael’s daughters posed for a photo with Santa in early November, no one imagined they’d be spending Christmas in an Atlanta hospital.

A wreck six weeks ago forever altered their lives, but the family is finding comfort in the outpouring of love and support from family, friends and strangers.

Shana — a native of Moultrie with several relatives still living here — broke her foot, sternum and a rib in the accident, but her daughters, Kaylyn and Julee Ann Sinclair, were much more severely injured.

Second-grader Julee Ann, 8, suffered head and abdominal injuries and needed surgery. She was unconscious for five days but is recovering.

The prognosis isn’t as good for kindergartner Kaylyn, 6. She suffered a spinal cord injury and is paralyzed from the chest down permanently, doctors say.

But her mom hasn’t told her that.

“I haven’t had the heart. How do you tell your child she’ll never walk again?”

Kaylyn knows her injury was life changing, Shana said, and that she’ll be in a wheelchair a long, long time.

“We’ve talked about different ways she can do things as she grows up. But who knows when a doctor might find a way (to repair spinal cords)? I can’t tell her forever. I can’t believe forever. I’m still praying for a miracle.”

The single mom who teaches fifth grade at the Jones County school her daughters attend said there have already been many miracles in their lives.

Becoming a teacher, moving from Moultrie to Middle Georgia and establishing a new network of friends are among them. So is surviving the accident, and having a paramedic, nurse and doctor be among the first to stop to help. But greatest of all has been the support of relatives, friends and co-workers, she said.

The family has been at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite since Thanksgiving. Their days are filled with rehabilitation, but also with visits, calls and cards from those who have rallied to embrace them.

Jones County school children have raised thousands of dollars. Other groups are paying their rent. A trust fund has been established. An anonymous donor provided Christmas gifts.

“I am overwhelmed with the support the people of Jones County and Macon have shown for Shana and the girls,” said Jay Carmichael of Moultrie, Shana’s stepmother. “People who hardly know her and many who don’t know her at all have opened their hearts to help. They’ve all but adopted her family.”



A MOMENT IN TIME

On Nov. 17, Shana decided to stay late at Dames Ferry Elementary to straighten her classroom.

“The girls had both been sick with colds. We had missed a couple of days, so my room was in a mess. I wanted to get everything straight before our Thanksgiving break,” Shana said.

She finished about 6 p.m., and they left for home — an apartment off Wesleyan Drive in Macon. They drove out Ga. 18 west, across the Ocmulgee River into Monroe County, then left onto Ga. 87, which becomes Riverside Drive in Macon.

But about a mile and a half before reaching the Bibb County line, a young woman driving a van apparently had a seizure and drifted across the center line, hitting Shana’s Honda Civic head-on.

“I remember seeing her come over the line and thinking she was swerving to miss something in the road. But she kept coming,” Shana said.

Shana slammed on brakes, skidding toward the side of the road, but it was too late. “I remember seeing the airbags deflate and smoke coming from under the hood, then thinking, ‘The girls, I have to get the girls out.’”

She got out and opened the door to the backseat.

“I looked in, and both were sitting there, their heads drooped down to their chests, motionless,” she said.

She unbuckled Julee Ann and lifted her head, but she was unconscious.

“I didn’t know if she was breathing. I picked her up and turned, and there was a man who had stopped. I handed her to him and said, ‘I’ve got to get Kaylyn.’ And I went around to the other side and she was waking up and moaning and calling ‘Mommy.’ “

She took Kaylyn in her arms and walked to the back of her car, where the man had laid Julee Ann on the trunk.

“(Julee Ann) was so still. I was so scared. I was afraid Kaylyn would see her and be upset, so I sat down in the road behind the car with her in my lap. I was thinking then that Julee Ann was the one in the most trouble.

“I asked the man — I learned later he was an off-duty paramedic — if she was alive, and he said yes, she was breathing, but very shallow. He kept working with her, and I held Kaylyn.”

A minute or two later, Kaylyn asked to see her sister. Shana tried to help Kaylyn stand, but she was limp.

“I didn’t want to scare her, so I told her we had to sit and stay out of the way. I told Kaylyn to kick her feet, and she said, ‘I am, Mommy, can’t you see?’ I said yes, but her feet weren’t moving.”

Then Kaylyn told her mom that she felt funny.

“She said, ‘I think my neck is broken, Mommy. I’ve never felt this way.’ Then she asked, ‘Mommy, am I dying?’ And I said, ‘No, baby.’ But I didn’t know.”

The first ambulance carried Julee Ann to The Medical Center of Central Georgia. The second one loaded up Kaylyn. Only when it pulled away did Shana realize she was injured.

“I remember I limped some as I carried Kaylyn, but I never hurt until they both left. Then my chest started hurting and my foot was so bad I had to sit down.”



ON THE MEND

Shana has been in a walking brace since the day after the accident, and her doctors say she might need surgery and screws to repair the bones. But she says she can’t take time for that now.

Julee Ann, who had a cut and large knot on her forehead, had a concussion and was unconscious for five days. She also had internal bleeding, and about half of her large intestine was removed in emergency surgery.

“The first few days she was awake, she didn’t talk at all. Then it was just simple answers to direct questions,” Shana said. “And she had trouble with short-term memory.”

But in the last couple of weeks, Shana said Julee Ann has returned to her “normally very hyper and talkative” self.

“Occasionally, she still can’t think of a name, but after her evaluation last week, the psychologist said she probably wouldn’t even need therapy.”

The news isn’t as bright for Kaylyn. Though there were no fractures or displacement of her vertebrae, Shana said doctors told her a section of her spinal cord was compressed in the accident, crushing and killing the nerves.

“They say it is permanent,” Shana said.

So their time in Atlanta has been spent in therapy to help Kaylyn regain use of her arms.

“She’s come a long way already,” Shana said. “When we got here, she could move her arms some but had very little strength or control. She couldn’t straighten her fingers or grip well. But now she can straighten them and grip enough to brush her teeth and hold crayons.”

Shana and Kaylyn visited Macon on Wednesday so an occupational therapist could show them how to maneuver in and out of their apartment, preparing them for Kaylyn’s Dec. 30 release from the hospital.

After five to six weeks at home, with daily rehab sessions in Macon, Kaylyn will return to Atlanta for nine weeks of intense therapy so she won’t need the waist-to-chin brace she now wears.



EAGER TO HELP

Shana and the girls have had plenty of help from their Colquitt County family since the accident. Shana’s mom, dad, stepmom, sister, aunt and stepbrother have all been regular visitors and have taken turns staying with them at the hospital, as has the girls’ father, David Sinclair. He and Shana divorced four years ago, and he remarried.

What has astounded the family is the way others have rallied around them.

Shana has taught at Dames Ferry only since August, after a year at Jones’ Mattie Wells Elementary. But teachers, staff, students and parents have all joined in to lend support. They have made donations, sent cards and e-mails and have taken up collections. They transformed the school’s annual Christmas celebration into “Caroling for the Carmichaels,” raising $2,700 that night alone.

Shana and Julee Ann were surprise visitors to the program Dec. 13, their first trip home since the accident.

“I got to see some of my students. We hugged and cried, but it was wonderful,” Shana said. “Some of them gave me their ice-cream money they’d been saving and said to give it to Kaylyn. It just amazes me they would do something like that.”

Dames Ferry principal Diana Blizzard said she’s not surprised by the outpouring of love from her school’s students and parents.

“We have wonderful families. They have children the same age and know it could have been them.”

But the help hasn’t been limited to Dames Ferry. The senior class from Jones County High donated $250. Students at Gray Elementary have sold more than 3,000 angel necklaces they made from paper clips and ribbons.

Employees at Carrabba’s Italian Grill, where Shana worked part-time, contributed money set aside for their holiday party, and they are teaming with Macon’s Martha Bowman Memorial United Methodist Church for a Jan. 8 benefit lunch. More than 1,500 tickets have been sold, said Julie Henderson, Shana’s mentor last year at Mattie Wells.

“She loves children, loves teaching, has such a wonderful personality,” said Henderson, who calls Shana her surrogate daughter. “She’s been through a lot but is so strong and works so hard. It breaks my heart to think of what has happened to them and what they face, but she’s a survivor. I know she’s going to devote herself to making the best life possible for Kaylyn and Julee Ann.”



LONG ROAD AHEAD

All of the support has convinced Shana she was right in choosing her new home. And although her mom and dad have urged her to come back to Moultrie, she said she and the girls will stay in Macon.

“I know they worry and want to help, but our support system now is in Macon and Jones County. Even before the accident, that was true, and it is even more true now.”

She also said Macon has more of the medical and rehabilitation services Kaylyn will need.

Still, Shana knows she and her daughters face a difficult future. As hard as she tries to remain upbeat and positive and concentrate on all the good things happening to her family, sometimes she can’t help but think of things Kaylyn has lost.

“She was just about to the point she could ride her bicycle without her training wheels. Now she may never have that chance,” Shana said, tears rolling down her face.

“Earlier this year, Kaylyn wanted to play soccer with some of her friends, but we were so busy I wouldn’t let her. I had promised her we’d do it next year. Now she’ll never get to play.” Then Shana dried her tears and smiled again. She said she and Julee Ann will do all they can to enable Kaylyn, not disable her. She said she won’t allow anyone to call her daughter handicapped, and that she won’t allow Kaylyn to believe she is. “She’s going to do things and have a good life. We’re going to see to that. She’s still Kaylyn. She still has her mind and spirit. She’s getting her hands and arms back. And we’ll keep praying for her legs,” Shana told a visitor.

The visitor stood to leave and noticed a photo of Kaylyn and Julee Ann sitting in Santa’s lap.

“Isn’t that a nice picture? He really looks like Santa.”

“Doesn’t he?” Shana said. “He came to school to have photos made with the kids a couple of weeks before the accident.”

Kaylyn, who had been eating nachos and paying little attention to their chat, was suddenly all ears.

“Mommy, that was the real Santa. I saw his key.”

“What key, sweetheart?”

“The one to his workshop, where he makes the toys.”

Santa’s workshop, a place of miracles.

Is there one left over this Christmas morning?

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HOW TO HELP

A Julee Ann and Kaylyn Trust account has been established at SunTrust Bank. Those wishing to contribute should make out a check to Shana Carmichael and mark it ‘deposit only’ for account number 1000042428176. Donations can be made at any SunTrust Bank branch.

There also will be a benefit lunch Jan. 8 catered by Carrabba’s Italian Grill at Macon’s Martha Bowman Memorial United Methodist Church, 500 Bass Road. Tickets are $11 for adults, $7 for children. Call (478) 477-1901 for information.

Dames Ferry and Gray elementary schools in Jones County will resume selling angel necklaces and T-shirts and hold other fund-raisers after the holidays. For information, call (478) 986-2023 (Dames Ferry) or 986-6295 (Gray Elementary) when school resumes in January.

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ONLINE JOURNAL

Read Shana Carmichael’s online journal about her daughters’ rehabilitation at www.caringbridge.org/visit/kaylynjuleeann.