The last time Dave Smith sat in his family home in Beaverly, he was doing a puzzle at the dining room table with his mom, helping her recuperate through the healing process of a shoulder injury.
He then drove off on a trip south. It was November 13, 2012. He got as far as Quesnel when he was involved in a highway crash. Smith was severely injured by the impact, suffering spinal damage and then a stroke due to the brain swelling that followed. After coming out of a doctor-induced coma, he faced numerous surgeries and was left confined to a wheelchair.
He is not sentenced to a life of paralysis, however.
He is painstakingly training his legs to walk again, and his hands and arms to function. The degree of those functions is still a work in progress.
This week, he returned to the family home more than six months after he departed. His parents and friends built a ramp from the garage up to the front door so he could get inside, riding his wheelchair. He intends to walk in one day soon, just like he managed to do exiting G.F. Strong Hospital in Vancouver 156 days after he arrived at the physiotherapy-focused facility.
"It may not have been very far, but it counts," he said with a wide grin. "I went in on a stretcher and I wanted to come out on my own two feet, and that's what I did."
There is no certainty about how much of his former mobility and dexterity he will regain. He feels certain some effects of the crash will always be with him, but general walking and the common duties of daily life he hopes to be able to handle on his own eventually.
"They [his medical team] have talked to me about the range of possibilities. I don't want to be the worst case scenario," he said. "I'm glad I've got the chair. I took my time picking out the one I'd like best, and this is a good one for me, I'm glad I've got it , but I do want to get out of it. There is too much I want to do in my life."
He has had to learn patience.
Like most severe-injury patients, he has felt frustrated by the disconnect between his gung-ho desire to recover and his body's slower results. He challenged his physiotherapy staff, he said, when he wanted to try taking big steps and they insisted on small ones only. He came to understand that trying too hard might feel like strength and ambition but it often turns out to be more damaging or frustrating in the long-run.
"What we kept hearing from the staff - and we could see it - was how he kept his positive attitude," said his mother Linda. "We were warned that it is very common for young men with injuries like his to get really frustrated, angry, down on themselves. He never did."
About the worst attitude he had during his recovery so far was a Facebook posting that read "I have never been so flattered to be called stubborn...screw you car wreck and stroke you can't keep this stubborn SOB down."
He will never forget his gratitude to all the people who came forward to help him and his family with money, morale and other resources. He said his CN Rail co-workers and union led the way, even the strangers among them. He was with CN less than two years, and was in the process of transferring from Prince George to Kamloops, but his situation touched veterans and even the staff in the Kamloops area, who hadn't even worked with him a day.
Also quick to respond were his friends and supporters in the Beaverly neighbourhood where he grew up on the family farm, calling the community at large in to help through fundraisers like a pancake breakfast and auction at the Beaverly Fire Hall.
"This is what Prince George does really well. This is a big city that is still a community first," said his father Orville Smith.
Smith said he intends to work hard at getting as healthy as he can, to show his appreciation for the support people gave.
"I'm doing my laps every night down the hallway," he said. "I'm not setting any land-speed records, but I am walking. You can't be in physio every day so you have to help at home. I want minimal chair use by the end of summer, and then we'll work on progressing with the crutches. My physio tells me that isn't an unreal goal."
Although his well-developed public speaking voice, trained through 4-H speeches and stand-up comedy, is not as strong now as it once was and he tires easily, Smith's smile and laugh are infectious. He frequently brings the conversation to the lighter side of life. He openly glows when talking about his fiance Kacie Halonen who has not only supported his recovery but intensified her training as a hospital technician so she could be of better service to his medical needs.
"I'm just being goofy but I keep telling her, we'll be dancing in no time," he said.
