Tragic accident makes family's Christmas special

OGDEN — Christmas will really be special for the Kern family. Terri Kern was jogging home April 28, and was about a block away from home in Leawood, Kansas, when she was crossing a four-lane road.

Terri crossed the first two lanes of traffic, but when she went to cross the next two lanes, one car swerved and missed her, but an SUV (sports utility vehicle) swerved the other way and hit her. She was thrown about 30 feet, but luckily landed on some grass. She tore both her carotid arteries at the base of her neck.

"The left one has healed, the two at the back of the neck have healed, but the right one still has a little constriction in it," said Kay Lipman, her mother. Kay and Allan Lipman are from Ogden and are members of Saint Joseph Parish.

"The doctors are going to wait to see how she progresses, but eventually they may want to put a stint in the right carotid artery as she gets older," said Kay. "She is now 44. She and her husband, Mike have five children ages 6 to 17. Allan and I packed up our things, closed up our house, and moved in to take care of them. We had a good time.

Many prayers were answered as a result of Terri’s accident. She had people of all different religions praying for her from all over the United States. Her brother-in-law set up a website that posted her progress.

Terri asked her neuro-surgeon after a while if she was healing like he thought she would. He answered, "No, in all my years of treating people, I have never had this happen. We have had help from a higher power. Most people do not make it when they have both their carotid arteries damaged."

After much research, it was discovered that Kay had not been baptized. She knew she had not been baptized Catholic.

"I have been married to Allan for 46 years," said Kay. "The reason behind all this is we were married in the Cathedral of the Madeleine and I promised to raise my children Catholic, and I did. Allan never pushed me to join. Most of the people in the parish and here in Ogden thought I was Catholic.

"When they heard about Terri and all this, they said, ‘You’re not Catholic? You do fund raisers for the high school, and many other things. I said have you ever seen me take Communion. I always get a blessing.

"I thought I was Methodist, because my family used to go to church on the base," said Kay. "Well, Terri had this horrible accident. Terri is very faithful. She gets up every morning at 5 a.m. and sits in her piano room with her back against a book case and prays. She had been praying for me to become Catholic for about 15 or so years, so long she has worn the finish off the bookcase. When she was injured so badly, we all flew in because they told us she would not make it."

"We were going back to bury her," said Allan.

"They really felt she was injured that badly, and she was having brain strokes," said Kay. "She was not responding, and she did say, ‘I love you and I am so sorry,’ and that was all I heard her say. After that she kept going down hill. So when things were looking really bad, I took her hand, and she was just laying there not responding to anything, and I said, Terri you have been praying a long time for me to become Catholic. If you can walk me down as my sponsor, I will join the Catholic Church. She actually smiled. I could not believe it. She smiled. She still remembers me saying this to her."

Kay said things progressed, and Terri was in ICU about 35 days, and in the hospital after that, and in therapy.

"A neuro-surgeon thinned her blood and pumped her blood pressure up to get blood to her brain to stop the brain strokes," said Kay. "He said if we can re-route the blood, her dead areas will come back. So you can retrain your whole brain.

"So Terri’s husband, Mike, went to his parish and talked to Father Ron Livojevich, and told him his in-laws had come to take care of his five children while Terri was recovering, and his mother-in-law would like to take some classes. Mike was told RCIA did not start until September, and it was May. Mike said, no, we need to do it now. So Peggy Schreck at the Church of the Nativity met with me twice a week for the three months we were there, and she gave me private instructions. We became good friends. Peggy was so excited I was going to become a Catholic.

"They made their piano room into a bedroom for us. We had everything we needed. We proceeded to learn to be parents again at our old age. Allan and I went shopping to feed five children and three adults. But the kids really rallied and they were my helpers. I taught them how to help. They each had an assigned day to help set the table and do the dishes, or what ever I needed help with.

"I taught the three oldest how to do their own wash," said Kay. "The children are Kaitlyn, 17, Courtney, 15, Abby, 13, John Milton, 11, and Halley, 7. They were good. We took them to baseball practice, soccer practice, to go swimming with friends, and tried to keep up with their schedules. Terri had a very good network of friends, who would call daily to see if they could help. They also planned meals and brought in food. It was a truly great experience.

"Then we brought four of the five children back to Utah with us to go to our cabin for a vacation after Terri came home," said Kay. "We went to Idaho to our cabin and we fished, rode the ATV, we saw moose, played in the Snake River, and went shopping and on hikes. It was a good thing for them before school started."

Kay said on Aug. 17, her birthday, they all participated in a walk/run for stroke victims. Terri and her parents made it the whole mile.

"It was quite inspirational," said Kay. "Then we planned to go back to Kansas for Thanksgiving so I could be received into the Catholic Church on Nov. 29. We made reservations at the Residence Inn so all three of Terri’s siblings could come as well as Allan’s sister and her husband, Nancy and Clark Giles. There were 25 of us."

"My mother told Nancy that some day Kay would become Catholic," said Allan. "My mother was Marion Lipman. In 1945, under Bishop Duane G. Hunt, she was a caseworker when Catholic Charities, now Catholic Community Services first began. At that time, they did adoptions. Msgr. J. Terrence Fitzgerald (vicar general) worked there as well, and they were very good friends. Msgr. Fitzgerald blessed the cross I had made for Kay."

"He blessed for us the St. Benedict’s crosses from the Monastery in Huntsville that we gave to everyone," said Kay. "He also blessed the tatted crossed I had made for everyone. My grandmother had given me one and I wanted everyone to have something to remember from this day.

"It was such an emotional and exciting day," said Kay. "My granddaughter, Kaitlyn, surprised us and sang "Light My Candle. For my white garment, I made a stole with material from a skirt my mother had made for me. The back of stole was made from the satin from Terri’s wedding dress. So many prayers were answered. We were all blessed"