“We were going into Houston for dinner with some good friends. Because we expected to have a drink or two, we asked our daughter to be our Uber driver. She was a college student. She was home. She needed the money. So we had her drop us off, and we were going to call her when we were ready to be picked up.

“After dinner, we took a different Uber to this new bar we wanted to check out. We drank some. We danced. And it was around 12:30 when our daughter came to get us. After dropping off our friends at their house in Crosby, we headed home.

“John was in the front passenger seat, and I was on the bench seat in back. I remember telling them that I was going to lie down, and that Whataburger sounded good. The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital, and telling my mother, ‘I can’t feel my legs.’

“I learned that we had been hit by a woman in a Hummer. She was driving drunk and texting. Thank God that John and my daughter were OK. He said that I didn’t have my seat belt on. I could not believe that I had taken it off. Because if you know me, I was always the seat belt police.”

She ended up with her head resting on the floor board, and her feet over the back of the seat. Her arm was stuck between the edge of the seat and the door, which had caved in on her shoulder.

“I broke my sternum and the ribs around it. And my spinal cord was injured. I had two surgeries.

“I don’t recall when they told me that I was paralyzed. Maybe I just knew. I would try to move my legs, and nothing happened. I thought, ‘Am I ever going to walk again?’

“I was in the hospital 43 days. It was a roller coaster of emotions. One day I would be OK, and the next I would curse everybody. I didn’t want to go to therapy. I started having major anxiety attacks because I couldn’t move. I was getting claustrophobic. And I was just mad. Mad at the world. Mad at God. Mad at the lady who put me in a wheelchair.

Husband her biggest advocate

“When I found out that I was never going to walk again, I just cried. And I asked God, ‘Why? Why me?’ To be honest, I wanted to die. I hate saying that, because I was the lucky one. There are mothers who would give anything to have their child in a wheelchair, instead of having to bury them.

“But when I finally got home from the hospital, we were all scared. I’m paralyzed from the chest down. I have severe nerve pain that never goes away. How were we going to adapt to this new life? It was tough. Especially that first year, when I was in a hospital bed in what’s supposed to be our dining room.

“But I’ve gradually made progress. Every day I don’t go, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m never going to walk again.’ I continue telling my brain, ‘Pick up your leg and take a step. Now it’s the other leg’s turn.’ I still believe in miracles. I want to believe that I may eventually walk one day. If not, I’m finally adapting to life in a wheelchair.

“For the first 2 1/2 years after the wreck, though, I pretty much stayed home. I didn’t want to go anywhere. Then John began nudging me and said, ‘It’s time. You can’t stay inside all day. You’re going to wind up even more depressed.’ So we’d go to a restaurant. We went to the museum. My son played college football, so we traveled to his games.

“And I’m trying to be that cheerful person I used to be: saying hello, meeting new people. I do that at church, where I feel really comfortable. A little bit more of the old me is coming out. And I don’t feel as trapped inside my body.

“But I could not do this without the support of family and friends. My mother and sister-in-law take care of me during the day. When John gets off work, his other job is to come home and help me. He’s never wavered. We’ll be married 27 years in May. And I feel like our relationship is stronger than ever.

“That part of our marriage vows, in sickness and in health, really means a lot. When I got out of the Shock Trauma Intensive Care Unit, he held my hand and said, ‘We’re going to get through this. I’m here for you. I’ll be here for you forever, until the day I die.’

‘It doesn’t seem fair’

“It wasn’t until several weeks after the accident that they arrested the woman who hit us. The wreck happened in 2018. In 2019, she was finally sentenced to five years.

“We were there for the sentencing. Passing her in the hallway with her standing up and me in a wheelchair, I really wanted to lunge at her. I could feel the rage inside me. She looked at me and then looked away, like no big deal.

“In my impact statement, I said, ‘Look at me. Look what you’ve done to me. I’m not supposed to be in this chair. Because of your actions, I can no longer be a nurse. I can no longer sit and work an eight-hour day.’ I also said, ‘What you did to me, you can do to your own family. You could kill your husband, your children, your grandchild, your mother. Then how are you going to feel?’ I said, ‘If I can save one person by putting you away, then I’m good with that.’ But still, no remorse. She couldn’t even look at me and just say, ‘I’m sorry.’ She never took responsibility for driving drunk.

“She’s up for parole in May. And I’ve been asking family and friends if they’d be willing to write a protest letter to the parole board on my behalf. I mean, she’s only served 2 1/2 years of her five-year sentence, while I have to serve a life sentence with my injuries in a wheelchair. It makes my blood boil.

“I hope she’s learned something from the whole experience. But from what we’ve seen online, her family is just ready for her to get out so they can have a big party. It doesn’t seem fair at all.”

— Patti Pequeno Farris

The post Drunk driver forever changes her life appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I was 18 at the time we met, and he was 28. So I didn’t really get to experience many things that other people experience before getting into a relationship. Like dating and just doing different things as a single person.

“I feel like I kind of grew up and matured as part of someone else and not as my own person. At some point I realized, I don’t really love myself. I needed to learn to do that. So after about 7 1/2 years together, we split.

“It wasn’t a bad breakup. It was somewhat of a mutual agreement. We still remained friends. So close to where I could call him if I was having a rough time with my new relationship. And vice versa, he could call me. It was always respectful. It was never ‘I miss you’s’ and all that.

“He ended up splitting with his partner. My split came a few months later. Then at some point it was like, ‘Do you ever miss us?’ And it was one of those ‘I never stopped thinking about you’ kind of things.

“So after a little over two years apart, we gave it another shot. I don’t want to say it’s perfect, because nobody’s perfect. But it’s been damn near perfect ever since. The most that we ever argue about is who cheated at the video game.

“If we ever have an instance where we don’t see eye to eye, we stop right then and there, and we talk about it. We take time to understand each other. I think our willingness to see the other person’s point of view and to compromise is something that all relationships should have.

“I’m very, very happy that we’re back together. I’m in a happy place right now. We’re aiming to get married next July. I feel like it’s a confirmation that this time, it’s really forever.”

— Chris Champion (with Timothy Agar)

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(3 of 3) “I’m a person who never put his seat belt on. Even from a young age. I don’t know why. I just never have. I just wish I did that day I had the accident. I would still be fine.

“But I’m OK. I thank God each and every day for the second chance I’ve been given. I’ve had people tell me, ‘God did it to slow you down. You were going too fast in life.’ But I say, ‘God didn’t do that. He saved me from that death. He brought me back.’

“I might be just half a body, but I’m still here. My wife and my kids are still with me. It’s a blessing to be able to say this.”

“When Pedro was in the hospital, nurses told me that many people they see in this type of situation don’t make it. A lot of marriages don’t survive this. My older brother even said, ‘I will buy you and your kids a plane ticket back to Georgia. You can leave him, then come back to visit when he’s doing better.’

“Many people told us we weren’t going to make it, relationship-wise. But I was like, this is my husband. We’ve been through a whole lot already. Up and leaving him, taking our kids away, none of that was ever on my radar.

“If it weren’t for us as a family unit, Pedro wouldn’t be happy and OK today. That goes the same for me. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be sober and successful. It’s the yin and the yang of the whole thing.

“We have really good kids, too. They help with his care and stuff like that. They have a different kind of life than normal 15- and 16-year-olds. But they see a mom and a dad who love each other unconditionally and care for each other no matter what.

“I’m incredibly thankful that I am this person for my husband. And that he wasn’t with someone else who might have left him. I thank God that it’s me. And I thank God that he’s him for me. We count ourselves blessed every day.”

— Kimberly and Pedro Infante

When they met in 2001, Kimberly was Pedro’s waitress at a bar in Georgia. They will celebrate 15 years of marriage on Dec. 22.

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The post ‘Up and leaving him was never on my radar’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“The first time I started coming to this church, I just let a few little things get to me, and I fell right back into the old me. I was having a hard time reading the Bible. I didn’t really even know how to pray or talk to God that well. This time, it’s come so much easier. I’m totally ready for it now.

“I don’t care what anybody thinks when I walk out in those streets. I haven’t really left too much. One time I did leave to take one of the leaders here and another lady to the bus stop. On the way there and on the way back, there were at least five people who wanted something related to Kush or blunts. After they got on that bus, I could not get back here fast enough. I ran back like a little kid.

“I’m not ready to go back out there yet for good. I ask for patience. But be careful what you ask for because I’ve had test after test after test. And I find myself getting mad over the littlest stuff. I know it’s the devil just eating at me, saying, ‘You’re not going to do it. You can’t do it this time.’ Yes, I am, man. I’m doing it. This is the longest I’ve ever been clean since I really started smoking weed around 19 or 20. Now, I’m just taking it one day at a time. All I know is that I don’t want to be the old me. I know that for a fact. I want to be better.

“I have a son who’s going to turn 19 on Dec. 30. I haven’t gotten to be around him very much because of the drugs and the alcohol and just being ignorant. I have pretty much neglected my son through all of this. But I don’t think he’s ready for me to come see him yet. I want to be totally clean. I want to be good. I want to have a job. I want to be a good dad. I want my son to see the change in me. For so many years, I was good at being bad. Now I want to be real good at being good.”

— Larry Pool Jr.

Having struggled for years with drugs and alcohol, Larry believes he’s on a better path in life thanks to House of Mercy. He’s currently staying at the local church, which is planning its second annual Christmas banquet on Dec. 7 for those without homes. It hopes to help 300 people from Baytown and surrounding communities by providing dinner, gifts, clothes, shoes, haircuts and showers. To learn how you can support this effort, contact Teresa McCartney Hoffart at 713-702-2848.

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The post Church helps on way to turning life around appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I was working at Walmart on the night shift, but I was going to move to days because my shift got real boring. So out of curiosity I was thinking, there have to be some cute girls on the day shift, right? Like, somebody.

“I kept hearing the name Hunter float around. So when I moved to the day shift I was like, I’ve got to find that girl with Hunter on her name tag.

“I was working in receiving, and we had 20-something people on our team. I was looking for someone who fit the description: a 5-foot-5 or 5-foot-6 blond girl with blue eyes. I figured that shouldn’t be too hard. But it took me two days because she was off my first day on the shift.

“That next day, I saw her in the break room. She was sitting there eating a bag of strawberry-flavored jelly beans. I asked her if it was OK if I sat down, and she said, ‘Yeah.’ I didn’t exactly know what to say after that. She was the first one to really speak up. She said, ‘Hey, would you like some jelly beans?’ And I was like, ‘Sure.’

“So our relationship started with jelly beans. Now here we are, about two years later, and we’re engaged.”

— Marcus Cerda (with Hunter Hinnant)

The post Relationship begins with jelly beans at Walmart appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“We actually met on a gaming console, Xbox. We were playing Grand Theft Auto.

“We like all the same things. I mean, we just kind of think the same way. A lot of our opinions, like on world matters, are really similar. So we don’t really have to argue about anything. If there is a certain decision that needs to be made, we pretty much know what we’re going to think about it before we even ask.

“And we both kind of came into this relationship with nothing. So there was never any, this is my stuff, this is your stuff. We’ve kind of just built our whole lives together.”

— Katie Rehkopf

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The post Relationship partners on the same wavelength appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“We’ve been together five years. We’ve been engaged two years.”

What’s your wedding plan?
“We don’t really have one. I mean, it’s just paper. We’re pretty much married now, just without the paper.”

Do you tell people you’re engaged?
“Yeah. But I’m starting to think we should just say we’re married. I don’t know. There’s kind of that common law thing going on.”

Getting any pressure to make it legal?
“Not really. I kind of want to do something more official for my family because I know they would appreciate it. But I think it’s kind of like a thing nowadays. Not a lot of young people are getting married or having kids. But they’re still together. I guess that’s us right now.”

— Katie Rehkopf and Andy Deck

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The post ‘We’re pretty much married, just without the paper’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“But we got married right after I graduated high school. It’s weird looking back now because we have a 17-year-old daughter, and I cannot imagine her bringing home someone older like that.

The post Living by golden rule leads to lasting relationship appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“When my first wife passed away, I was left trying to raise two young children. So when the two of us got married, she was really marrying three people.”

“He said to me, ‘You know, these kids need a mother.’ The thing is, I was only 18 at the time, and there was a 15-year difference in our ages. Those first few years of marriage were very difficult for me. I had two children, I was in college and I was a pastor’s wife. Our son was the oldest, and he was in first grade the first year we were married. He told his teacher that his mother was only 12 years old when he was born. It was funny, but it was true.”

The post Trust, commitment keys to 51 years of marriage appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I don’t usually start writing the beginning of a poem. I start in the middle and build around it. No matter how you approach it, you want every line to be impactful. You want to say something that will move someone.

“I feel like my best poems come whenever there’s a sudden change. I don’t adapt that well, so writing about it is very helpful. A neighbor recently committed suicide, and I wrote a poem that talked about some good memories and how we’re going to really miss him moving forward.

“I also write a lot about relationships. Starting at a young age I would really dive into my relationships, which probably wasn’t the greatest idea. But I’m in a much happier relationship now. I think you usually write about what you know, and I think I know about love. As much as a 20-year-old can.”

— EmmaLee Newman

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The post Creating poetry helps her deal with change appeared first on The Baytown Project.