01/23/2026
Found this in another group...Have you been stopped for what felt like to long by Traffic Control? Have you been stuck at a closed highway angry because you had places to be? This is my family's story and why you were stopped.
January 22, will never be just another day to me. Hard to believe this was 29 years ago, sometimes it feels like an eternity, and somehow it can feel as fresh as the day it occured.
This year I am 4 years older than my Dad was the year he lost his best friend and became her caregiver from the accident. As 21 year old it sure didn't seem as young as it does now. As a 50 years old it hits VERY hard how this was how he was meant to spend his life after he kids had grown up and started their lives.
January 22, 1997
This day always hits me with a mix of emotions.
I am filled with graditude my mom survived, I am also filled with sorrow and pain over the mom I lost that day. She is entirely different then the woman who raised me.
It was a normal but extreemly cold Alberta day, the kind cold that hurts your lungs when you take that first crisp breath, That morning my mom asked me to drive in with her and her a load of water for the ponies, I told her I was busy, this was not true, I just didn't want to help it was cold.
That afternoon she went to get a load of water with my youngest brother. (Who was in town staying with a friend met her at the water station) The day had only gotten colder, and it had started to lightly snow. The truck broke down on the way home, this was less.than 2 km from our Farm.
My brother then 17 drove his car to town to get a tow truck, my mom stayed with the truck. The tow truck following my brother, and another car was following the tow truck (which had just turned its lights on) The truck had died just after the highway split to 2 lanes.... the driver behind the tow truck passed both my brothers car and the tow truck. I can only assume my mom was out of the truck because she saw my brother's car and the tow truck arriving.
She was struck by the passing car, she was standing on the shoulder of the highway, She was struck by a car travelling approx 80-90 km/hour flying 30 ft forward head first into the pavement.
Details burned in my head:
-The panicked phone call from my youngest brother who had a hard time getting ahold of anyone. He was crying so hard he was hardly understandable.
-That I got to the University of Alberta hospital faster then STARS air ambulance.
-seeing my Dad cry, to this day it is the only time.
-That once she was somewhat stablized we briefly saw her... (she had polio as a kid) she was only recognizable by her very small feet.
-The sound of an ICU unit, the alarms of every machine hooked up to her.
-when my youngest brothers friend, who was with him, handed me part of her dentures he had in his pocket, this was into the waiting area just after she arrived in the hospital.
- I was later given the other half of the denture by a nurse they found lodged in her throat.
-watching the monitor that showed her intercranal pressure.
-hearing there were far to many bleeds in her brain to operate, and all we could do was wait.
-coming home to a half eaten brown sugar sandwich on the counter. One of her favorites.
-being told she had a Traumatic Brain Injury, and she would be different. They described it as similar to shaken baby syndrome, but to an adult brain that doesn't heal as well. She would never be the same woman who raised us.
-not believing them and held on to the hope she'd just wake up like they did on TV.
-months passing.... with her not knowing who we were, she only spoke Danish (her first language) when she came out of the coma and for quite a while after (she still swings into danish to this day)
-walking the halls of the Glenrose, where my mom spent most of her childhood, getting to see the tunnels she spoke about going through when she was there as a child with polio.
The recovery was hard long and emotionally draining. It still is.
It started with that day, then that month, and then that year as we all struggled deeply to come to terms with how different she was now.
My best description is : She is trapped knowing she isnt the same and knowing its not getting bettter, I can only compare it to the transition stage of dementia or Alzheimers... that point when they know they are slipping but can't stop it...
It's been 29 years of trapped in that state.
TWENTY Nine years ago a 21, 19 and 17 year old lost the mom they knew.
TWENTY- nine years ago Dad became a full time caregiver to his wife and best friend.
TWENTY- nine years ago friends and family who could not cope with the changes in her or or anger or at times inappropriate behavior due to this horrific injury simply slowly drifted out of our lives, or maybe it was the changes in us, as we grieved the wife and mother we lost and tried to come to terms with the stranger left in the shell that is my mom.
We sometimes get a hint or a glimpse of the Mom we once had and the wife my Dad has always loved. These are quite rare and only becoming less and less as the year pass.
My kids well all the grandkids have a different relationship, they have only known this version of my mom, and they love her so purely and just take her as she is.. .. at time I envy that they don't have who she was to compare with who she is... I love the relationship she has with all the grandkids, she loves them and they love her, that part is beautiful.
Sorry for the long winded post, I don't do January well....it's cold, dark and just not my favorite month.
That is why January 22, will forever be burned in my head and heart. This aniversary of the accident feels heavy on me its was weird age of transition between being a kid and pulling away to be an adult. It was like time stood still for a long time after January 22, 1997, and January has a lot of long nights to let your mind wander.
Why am so so passionate about telling people to slow down for Amber lights and Emergency Vehicles! I see how fast some of you go past us to only be going faster past the tow truck trucks and workers in our zones!! I really mean it !! SLOW DOWN !!
This is one of the reasons I do Traffic Control, please choose to drive safe. Our families story could easily be anyone's. Do your part by being a safe driver. Keep everyone using and working on our highways safe.
I would appreciate it if you share, traffic is only getting faster and more aggressive with each passing year. My hope is that sharing this could help slow down drivers on our highways.
Thank you
Leah Peterson
Traffic Controller & owner of Robson Valley Traffic Control.
Drive Safe,.Slow down and choose to be kind.
