Peggie Avers is still happy and productive after a 16-foot fall injured her spine. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

BY SHERI TRUSTY

At one time, Peggie Avers had a thriving ice cream shop in Elmore. Locals would stop by I Scream on Your Left for a treat or to pick up custom baked good orders, and bikers passing through on the North Coast Inland Trail would take a break for lunch. When Avers wasn’t at the shop, she was mowing lawns for the business that she and her husband started before they were married.

Then life changed when Avers fell 16 feet onto a cement floor and damaged her spinal cord. Her life is different today, but it’s still full and productive. Avers views life from a wheelchair now, but that just means she is always looking up.

Avers isn’t completed sure why she was walking in the unfinished attic of her home shop on Dec. 2, 2016. She may have been retrieving the Christmas decorations she stored up there, but she can’t be completely sure. Somehow, she slipped between the beams and fell to the floor.

“I had a traumatic brain injury. I have no memory of that day,” she said. “I had an incomplete injury. That means my spinal cord moved and was crushed, but it wasn’t severed.”

Avers may not remember what happened before she fell, but she has a clear memory of the miracles that came afterward. Her son was unexpectedly home from work that day and discovered her soon after she fell.

“If he was not here, I would not have survived,” she said. “A lot of miracles happened.”

Avers endured a 13-hour surgery so the doctors “could put back together what they could,” and then she faced months of intense physical therapy at Ohio State Dodd Rehabilitation Hospital. By the time she was done, she had full use of her upper body and had regained enough movement to stand, assisted with a walker, long enough to transfer to the bed, the car, or anywhere else she wants to go.

“I can stand for about 15 minutes but don’t have any kind of mobility,” she said.

Those 15 minutes allow her the freedom to transfer to an ATV so she can head down the road to mow lawns.

“Our lawnmowers are all hand-controlled. I get on my side-by-side and drive to where my husband left the mower,” she said.

Although Avers sold the ice cream shop, she still bakes for customers at home. She recently provided the desserts for the Ottawa County Republican Party Fish Fry.

“I make pies and any kind of cookies, including decorated cookies. I sell a lot of those at Christmastime,” she said.

Life may be different for Avers today, but it is still full and happy. Throughout her recovery, she was surrounded by support that kept her looking forward.

“My husband had a lot to do with my attitude. He was there every day. He stayed with me in the hospital for three months,” she said. “He was very positive and always encouraging me.”

Every day, people are injured and beginning the journey that Avers was thrust into in 2016. She wants them to know that they can find contentment in their new way of life.

“I think I would tell them to take one day at a time. It’s going to be different, and that’s ok. One thing that kept me going was that I was ok with doing things differently,” she said. “It’s ok if there’s some things you can’t do, and it’s ok to ask for help.”

Avers encourages anyone going through any kind of life change to stay positive.

“The biggest thing is to not focus on what could have been or what should have been,” she said. “Focus on what you can do.”

What Avers can do is still enjoy life every single day. Avers’ business, Peggy’s Pies Plus, can be reached at 419-266-1283.