PARKSLEY -- Becky Bloxom's family is planning a quiet Christmas this year.

They already received one of the greatest gifts possible -- the chance to celebrate the holiday together -- after a Dec. 13 return to Virginia's Eastern Shore by their older daughter, Courtney, 19, who has been a patient at several hospitals after being seriously injured in a May 23 car accident.

After Bloxom's husband, William, gets home from his shift at Perdue Farms, the couple and their other two children will open gifts together at their Hallwood home on Christmas morning.

Then they will take Courtney's presents to Shore LifeCare at Parksley, where she is staying in a room filled with the typical trappings of a teenage girl's life -- her senior portrait and prom pictures, a menagerie of stuffed animals, music coming from a small CD player and a small glittering, rotating Christmas tree.

It is all crowded in a strange juxtaposition to the medical equipment more commonplace in a nursing home.

They might watch William's favorite Christmas movie, "A Christmas Story," and maybe have dinner later -- but the details don't matter.

"It's not important. Just being together, that's what's important," Bloxom said.

That night

On the night of May 23, Becky Bloxom had spoken on the telephone with her daughter not long before she received a second call, this one from Courtney's boyfriend.

It was the phone call no parent wants to get, saying Courtney had been in a bad accident while driving home from her boyfriend's house.

The Arcadia High School senior, whose activities included cheerleading, chorus and an after-school job at St. Paul's on the Shore day care, had attended Arcadia's prom the week before and was preparing for her high school graduation.

The only visible signs of injury from the crash were a cut on her pinkie and a black eye, but she was seriously wounded internally.

But Courtney suffered a severe brain injury in the single-vehicle accident and has since been treated at four facilities: Peninsula Regional Medical Center, Retreat Doctors' Hospital in Richmond, Cumberland Children's Hospital in New Kent, Va., and most recently, Shore LifeCare.

She was in a coma for about six weeks and during that time missed a major milestone in her life: her June 9 graduation from Arcadia High, where her sister, Ashlin, 16, accepted Courtney's advanced studies diploma in an emotional ceremony.

"It was a bittersweet day. Before the accident, we were preparing for graduation. The cap and gown were hanging up at our house," said her mother.

A move home

In the days since the accident, milestones are measured in very different ways, such as the ability to focus her eyes on an object or to make a sound.

"We were never told it would be short," Bloxom said of her daughter's progress. "The doctor's exact words were, 'It's going to take a long time.'

At Shore LifeCare, Courtney receives three hours daily of speech, occupational and physical therapy in an effort to recover skills. The move to the facility, although welcomed because it is close to home, did not come easily for her mother.

"It was a little scary because no one ever wants to put their child in a nursing home," she said, adding that the staff there have been "wonderful; they love her."

Bloxom went on, reflecting on another benefit of the move: "Traumatic brain injury is a long journey. I'm excited about bringing her home and letting the community be a part of it."

Bloxom took leave from her job with First Med to care for Courtney and has remained by her bedside six to eight hours a day in the seven months since the accident. Her husband has held down the fort at home, working at his job while trying to maintain a normal home life for Ashlin and the couple's 12-year-old son, Josh.

After emerging from the coma into what is considered a minimally conscious state, Courtney continues to show some signs of progress.

"We know she is seeing; we know she is hearing," said her mother.

The family is thankful for the hundreds of Shore residents who have helped since the accident.

"Our heartfelt thanks to the community for everything they've done," Bloxom said.

Courtney's classmates, friends and others have spearheaded many charity events -- including haircut-a-thons, car washes, a dance, a motorcycle poker run and the sale of bumper stickers and bracelets -- to help alleviate the financial strain that comes with long-term medical needs.

Churches around the Shore continue to pray for Courtney's recovery and more than 3,600 people have joined the Facebook site "Prayers for Courtney Bloxom," where her mother posts regular updates on her progress.

Becky Bloxom's greatest fear is that as time goes by the community will move on, even while Courtney continues her slow struggle for recovery.

"Our family's fear is she'll be forgotten. So come by and visit her; tell her to keep fighting," Bloxom said to all who have shown their support to the family.

And turning to Courtney, she says with a hug, "My dream of you walking across that stage -- I don't know what stage it is, but it's going to happen. You've got a lot to offer, a lot to share.

www.delmarvanow.com

So many of us have watched and read about the daily sactifices this Mother and this family has made. Courtney's road to recovery has not been an easy one for her nor her family and friends. I wish all of you in the Bloxom family a very Merry Christmas. Courtney is proof that wonderful things do happen with prayer and with the attitude to never give up.

Keep up the good work Courtney. A Merry Christmas to you. jmmb