Thursday, October 29, 2009 10:03 PM CDT
COLUMN: Maggie faces a tough task of surviving after being struck by a car
By BILL LAIR, Managing Editor
blair@jg-tc.com
Always a hard worker, Maggie now has the toughest task of her life – survival.
Like several other people I have spoken with, I didn’t make the connection when I first saw the story that a woman named Margaret Stoke had been struck by an out-of-control car in Mattoon on the night of Oct. 19.
It was a couple days later I learned that Margaret Stoke is Maggie.
A lot of you who live in Mattoon and Charleston know Maggie.
Those who don’t know her by name probably have seen her walking in Mattoon to and from her job at Cody’s Roadhouse. For years, Maggie could be seen riding her bike or walking in Charleston.
Maggie lives near 19th and Richmond but usually walked or rode her bike to Cody’s on Mattoon’s far east side.
She was walking the night of Oct. 19 when a driverless car going north on 19th Street left the street and struck Maggie about a block from her home.
Now she is at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood. She is in critical condition.
Because of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), officials at Loyola cannot say anything more about Maggie’s condition than the fact she is listed as critical.
Maggie’s brother, Brian Stoke of Mattoon, is optimistic that Maggie will pull though.
Maggie has head trauma, has had four operations thus far and faces more major surgery, he said.
“They want to wait another week or so and let her body try to heal itself a little bit before the next surgery,” he said this week.
But Brian added some good news: “The doctors believe she will have full recovery.”
Brian said he went to the hospital in Maywood on Monday while another brother planned a visit on Tuesday.
Maggie’s parents are deceased. In addition to Brian, Maggie has a brother Bob in Toledo and a brother John in Mattoon.
Maggie is under heavy sedation and cannot talk.
But sometime before the string of operations, between being taken to Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center, then to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana and finally to Loyola Medical Center, Maggie was conscious for awhile. Brian said she remembers nothing about the incident.
“We’re assuming she was walking home that night,” Brian said.
No one should be surprised that Maggie was walking.
I often saw her walk past the Journal Gazette/Times-Courier office on Broadway Avenue, most likely on her way to work at Cody’s Roadhouse, where she was employed until recently.
On the night of Oct. 19, however, Maggie was apparently walking north on the west side of 19th Street near Richmond Avenue.
About four blocks south, a teenage driver jumped out of her moving car when the accelerator apparently became stuck.
Her car continued north on 19th Street and through a couple intersections before veering left.
The car struck a fire hydrant, a crosswalk pole, a sign, a corner of the Immaculate Conception Church Parish Center, and hit Maggie shortly after 8:30 p.m.
For friends of Maggie, the incident is an eery reminder of a tragedy in 1992.
Maggie’s good friend, Crystal June Melton, was riding her bike in Charleston one evening in March 1992 when she was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver.
Maggie and another friend, Kevin James, posted information signs all over Charleston in hopes of locating the driver.
It took two years to make an arrest in that case.
That’s when I got to know Maggie.
At the time she worked at Carol’s Cleaners in Charleston for Carol and Terry Roy.
Maggie was (and is) sweet but a little shy until she gets to know you. But she was always busy.
With Kevin’s influence, I think, she opened up and began to talk a lot more.
Dean Gowin, who owns Cody’s Roadhouse, said Maggie worked there for 5 years.
“She was dedicated and loyal,” Gowin said. “She would do anything for you and the rest of the employees would do anything for her.
“She would walk to work, she rode her bicycle. She never complained.
“Whatever the weather, we’d say, ‘We’ll come pick you up’ and she’d say, ‘No, don’t worry about it.’”
That is Maggie. She seldom accepts a ride. Several colleagues here at the newspaper who know Maggie also said she seldom accepted an offer of a ride. She seems to like being self-reliant.
Her friend, Kevin James, called Loyola Medical Center this week but all a nurse could tell him is that Maggie is in the Intensive Care Unit.
Kevin sent her a card.
“I wish someone would do something for her,” Kevin said.
Brian Stoke said that because Maggie is so heavily sedated, this is not the time for her to receive cards, balloons and get-well wishes.
Most likely, being in intensive care, she could not have balloons and gifts anyway.
We hope that Maggie gets strong enough soon to have that next operation. And we are hoping her doctors’ expectations of a full recovery come true.
And at that time, her many friends in Mattoon and Charleston can shower her with cards and gifts before welcoming her back home.
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Mama says wrote on Oct 30, 2009 5:57 PM: