Thread: NC citizens lost to illegal alien remembered. Very sad story

'There's not any closure for us'
LAST JULY 16, A DRUNKEN DRIVER LEFT SCOTT GARDNER'S CHILDREN WITHOUT A FATHER AND THEIR MOTHER, TINA, INCAPACITATED. THE WRECK ALSO THRUST THE FAMILY INTO THE FURIOUS DEBATE OVER ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.


JEFFERSON GEORGE
JGEORGE@CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.COM

COURTESY OF EMILY MOOSE
Tina and Scott Gardner in their engagement photo taken in 1997.


"Turn to me, turn to me ... "

Tina Gardner's father gently pivots her head from left to right, stretching her neck muscles.

"Bring your chin down," he says, pointing to her collarbone. Her head tilts down, then left.

"Raise your head up," he says. This one's harder, and Willie Jackson lends his daughter a hand --

physically and vocally. "C'mon," he says. "You're not pulling. Pull."

At a nursing home south of Raleigh, a woman who once ran marathons now sits in a wheelchair.

Instead of fixing health-food dishes, she is fed through a tube.

A year has passed since the drunken-driving crash that turned Tina Gardner and her husband, Scott, into N.C. icons in the national debate over illegal immigration.

On July 16, 2005, the Mount Holly couple were heading to Sunset Beach with their two children when a pickup plowed into their station wagon on a two-lane highway in Brunswick County.

The other driver, Ramiro Gallegos, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.22, nearly three times the legal limit. He also had five previous DWI charges -- with four convictions -- and was in the U.S. illegally.

Scott Gardner, a teacher and baseball coach at Highland School of Technology in Gastonia, died the next morning. The children, Jackson and Avery -- now 6 and 3 -- suffered minor injuries.

Tina Gardner, a full-time mother, also survived -- barely.

Public outcry soon led to legislation in Congress to deport illegal immigrants convicted of drunken driving -- the Scott Gardner Act. Scott's mother, Emily Moose, was in Washington, D.C., when Republican Rep. Sue Myrick, whose district includes Mount Holly, introduced the provision. Moose and her family still push for its final passage and tougher enforcement of immigration laws.

For Tina's parents, the debate is not part of their daily lives. Their focus is raising Jackson and Avery, and caring for Tina, her father said last week in his first interview since the crash.

"Right now I'm taking it one day at a time," Willie Jackson said. "There's not any closure for us."

On the way to Moose's house after the crash, Jackson Gardner told his cousin all about it, including the blood on his daddy. When they got home, his grandmother had to explain exactly what happened. "Your daddy's gone to live in heaven now," she said. "He's a real angel." Confused, Jackson asked, "Who's gonna take me fishing?"

In death, Scott Gardner has become well known.

Besides the immigration bill, his name has been attached to fundraisers for the family, inscribed on memorial markers -- including one being dedicated today at the crash site -- and honored through a scholarship. Last month, his family awarded a $1,000 scholarship to a student at Highland Tech.

"They wanted someone who would emulate Scott," said Lee Dedmon, the school's principal.

As they have mourned Scott, friends and family members have prayed for Tina, now 32.

Although she can't speak or move most of her body, Tina is awake. Her mother and father visit her daily. Tina's responsiveness comes and goes.

Nobody knows how much Tina knows and understands. Her eyes widen when she hears her children's names, her father said. When she's tired, they seem blank -- a stark contrast from the spitfire he remembers.

Tina asked Scott out on their first date, and often joked with friends and family.

"She could take it and give it out," her father said. "She was not thin-skinned."

Now Tina blinks her eyes or tries to stick out her tongue when asked, her father said, which makes him think she understands but can't respond. Doctors have said they're impressed with her functions, he said, but won't know how her brain was affected by the crash unless she speaks.

"If she could ever say that first word," he said, "that would be a huge step.

"She tries," he said, turning to his daughter. "Don't you try?"

Like any 3-year-old, Avery asks a lot of questions, her grandfather says, often about her parents. "When are Mommy and Daddy coming home?" she asked recently. But as quickly as the question popped into her head, her grandfather says, it was replaced by another. The next time she saw her mother, she couldn't stop talking to and kissing Tina. "Avery was all over her," Tina's father says.

Caring for their injured daughter and raising her children was not how Willie and Brenda Jackson planned to spend this stage of their lives.

A retired Army master sergeant and Vietnam veteran, Willie Jackson, 58, is a civilian equipment specialist at Fort Bragg. One year ago, he and Brenda, 53, were new empty-nesters -- Tina's sister had just graduated from college -- with retirement on the horizon.

The crash changed everything.

Since December, Tina has lived at the nursing home in Dunn, about 40 miles south of Raleigh and 14 miles from the Jackson home in Spivey's Corner. She was discharged from hospitals in Raleigh and Charlotte, her father said, because she didn't show enough improvement.

"They said she had reached a plateau," he said.

During her father's visit Thursday, Tina regularly moved her right leg -- lifting it from the wheelchair's footrest -- and occasionally flexed her right hand as he stretched her muscles.

He visits Tina daily after work, after her mother has been there during the day. But Saturdays, he says, are the best.

After she has her bath that morning, he said, "I dry her hair, cut her fingernails and ... "

He paused, biting his lip.

" ... and I give her a little foot massage," he said. "She seems to like that."

To help young Jackson deal with his father's death, Scott's mother brought home a helium tank and balloons so he could send notes to his dad with the balloons. "Do I need to put `Scott' on the notes?" he asked. "Why?" his grandmother asked back. "So the angels will know who they're for," he said.

Scott's and Tina's parents have tried to create a normal life for the couple's kids. Jackson has had the harder time.

"Jack remembers everything" about the crash, Willie Jackson said. "He knows more than you think he does."

For several weeks after Tina was hurt, Jackson didn't like seeing her, his grandfather said. He eventually needed counseling.

Jackson improved and began talking to her during visits, his grandfather said, but lately he would rather watch TV or look at a magazine.

"We don't want to force it," he said, "but we don't let him off the hook altogether."

Otherwise, Jackson and Avery are like any other kids, their grandparents said. Avery can't sit still, while Jackson played both flag football and T-ball over the past year.

"He slides into every base," Moose said, "just like his daddy taught him."

Willie Jackson said the family may sell Scott and Tina's Mount Holly house and put the money into the children's trust fund. There it would join contributions made through fundraisers by Tina's and Scott's friends, he said.

Tina's parents also hope to buy a van so they can bring her home for visits, and eventually convert their garage into a bedroom for her.

Until then, their visits to the nursing home will continue, as will the exercises.

"Open up your hand, baby," Tina's father told her Thursday.

On her right hand, the fingers relaxed and uncurled about halfway.

"Give me a thumbs up," he said.

Her fingers curled slightly.

A few seconds later, her right thumb extended.

Slowly, and not fully.

But definitely a thumbs up.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jefferson George: 704-868-7742


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How many other families are devastated like the Gardners because of our governments failure to enforce immigration laws When will this madness stop?

Is this family sueing the Federal Government since it is responsible
for this tragedy?