It was 22nd July 2006, when Christy Gardner was deployed in Asia as a military police officer for the army as a part of the peacekeeping mission. She typically drove a Humvee, but you can call it her bad fate that she was on foot that day. Having no memory of how she got injured, she woke up several days later in a hospital bed, suffering from several internal injuries and fractures in her skull. She also sustained an injury to her spinal cord which left her legs below the knees paralyzed. That was the day that Christy Gardner almost lost her life.
In the military, ‘Alive Day’ is the day that you almost died while serving your country. Veterans celebrate it in all sorts of ways. While some host parties for their loved ones, others just try to sleep and get through the day. It is a special day that almost every veteran has and has a special meaning attached to it.
For the first two years, Christy Gardner did not celebrate her 'Alive Day' in any which way, and it came and went like it did not mean anything. That was perhaps because she was still on active duty in Texas, undergoing scores of medical procedures on her legs and abdomen. Even after so much time had passed after the incident, Gardner was still finding it difficult to rehabilitate her body and mind.
After medically retiring from the Army in 2007, she decided to move to Maine to live with her mother and stepfather who could assist her in living with her condition. But her battle was only beginning. Because of the severe injury to her brain, she started to have seizures and often found herself unable to remember simple words like a car.
Her life changed when she met a veteran who invited her to join a group of disabled veterans who enjoy adaptive sports together. After that day, everything was different.
Christy Gardner, who today has both her legs amputated below the knees, has seizures on a regular basis and was told by doctors that she could never do anything more than just sitting on the couch. However, to the surprise of many, she has done something adventurous that even many people with all their limbs think twice before trying. Besides waterskiing and snowboarding, she has already tried surfing as well as skiing. And to commemorate her 'Alive Day', the courageous woman does something that her doctors told her she could never.
She didn’t just stop there, Gardner got so good at sled hockey that she was selected as USA Hockey’s Disabled Athlete of the Year in 2013. She was also a part of the US team that defeated Canada in the inaugural Sled Hockey International Women’s Cup in November 2014 in Ontario, Canada.
Today, she lives independently with her assistance dog, Moxie, in Lewiston, Maine. She works on a farm and has already received her driver’s license.
Christy Gardner is an inspiration to all of us who give up in the face of adversity. Her courage to go on in life no matter the circumstances life has put her in should spark the motivation in us to overcome all the challenges in our lives and make the most of our situations.
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