Second chance to get it right?
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It already was a tough life for Lori Atkins. And now she’s lying in a hospital bed in Iowa City — ravaged by a violent motorcycle crash.
The 48-year-old has had a half-dozen surgeries since the March 28 wipeout in Fort Madison. She’s lost a kidney, her spleen and part of her stomach. She has a serious head injury, multiple facial fractures, two broken wrists and has lost most of her teeth.
She was twice revived at the scene of the crash in which her boyfriend was driving. She was revived again at the hospital.
It may be something of a miracle that she survived at all. And it may be another small miracle that she is surrounded by her family.
Much of Lori’s family gave up on her years ago. She’s a drug addict and an alcoholic, according to her sister, brother and stepfather. She had four children — each of whom was taken away from her. And now even the children have rallied to her bedside.
Some might say she’s in the fight of her life. Maybe she’s been training for it all along.
As a kid, Lori had it rough. Her birth dad was an alcoholic, her sister said, and their mom struggled to raise the four kids alone, moving them around between Davenport and Moline. At one point, the kids were taken away from their mom, and they spent two years in a children’s home.
When their mom married Lee “Whitey” Beardsley, the family was reunited and finally had a shot at a solid life. But it was too late for Lori. As a teenager, she ran away to California and found her way into the drug scene.
She came back to the Quad-Cities a couple of years later and then came the children: now age 22, 18, 14 and 8. The 22-year-old hadn’t seen his mom in 19 years but joined the rest of Lori’s family at her bedside.
Her greatest ally, brother Jack Morris, flew in from Pennsylvania to see Lori. They were always close. They “leaned on each other,” he said, during their difficult childhood.
“If she pulls through this, it may be the best thing that ever happened to her,” he said last week.
Jack used to write a lot of poetry but hadn’t penned so much as a stanza in at least a dozen years. During a half-hour wait for information about his sister’s condition, he picked up a pen again.
This is what came out:
Little sister, with all dreams shattered,
Lying there, torn and tattered.
Others might just say goodnight,
Yet you will stay and fight the fight.
Little sister, our mother above
Surely sends you all her love.
Brothers, sister, and children, too
Stand beside to fight with you.
Little sister, so quiet and still,
Push on now with all your will.
Embrace this chance to end your strife
And awaken your soul for a second life.
Barb Ickes can be contacted at (563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com.
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