For Heritage grad, crash changes life choices

Carrie J. Sidener / Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: March 1, 2008

By now, Christine Watson had planned to be a freshman at Virginia Tech. She'd be active in sports, probably volleyball. And figuring out a major with her sights set on a career after graduation.

Instead, she's taking two classes at Central Virginia Community College. She struggles to remember what she's learned in class, or even the plot of the last movie she watched.

At 19 years old, she still has her learner's permit.

The script of her life changed on May 26, 2005, when a driver with a suspended license swerved into oncoming traffic on Candlers Mountain and hit Christine's car head-on. It was rewritten by the brain injury that left her in a coma for a month and in rehabilitation for two months to learn how to walk and talk again.

"Christine was running full throttle for college," said her mother Pam Watson. "She may get to those things, but it will take a lot longer."

Christine was 16 years old and two lessons away from getting her driver's license. She was behind the wheel in a driver's education car with her Heritage High School teacher and another student, heading east on Old Rustburg Road. Cecil Dudley Silby of Rustburg was driving west on that two-lane road in a Sterling Oil Company van.

The van veered into the eastbound lane. The teacher grabbed the wheel and hit the brake pedal on her side, but the vehicles collided. The instructor and the other student had minor injuries but Christine's were life-threatening. The volleyball player and avid athlete had a fractured skull and severe brain trauma.

"What is it going to take-" Christine said recently. "What is it going to take to keep these people that are suspended, to keep them off the road-"

Silby was convicted of reckless driving and driving on a suspended license in September 2005. He was sentenced to serve 20 days in jail with another 180 days suspended. His license was revoked for six more months.

Pam Watson and her husband, Allen, filed a $2 million lawsuit against Silby, claiming that their daughter will suffer a reduced ability to pursue a normal life. The Watsons settled that case and the terms are confidential.

Christine always assumed she would go to Virginia Tech. That's where her brother, L.A., goes. It's kind of a family tradition. She visited her brother at the university in January, then returned home to her two computer classes at CVCC.

She works a few hours a day as a waitress at Valley View Retirement Home.

Christine struggles to rebuild her life.

"It was hard to watch a 16-year-old have to learn everything over again," Pam Watson said.

To graduate with her class, the once-advanced student had to take a few classes at Heritage then supplement them with homebound education. She studied nights and weekends and holidays to combat her memory problems. She graduated on schedule in June 2007.

"I worked my butt off, but to me, that wasn't a question of whether or not I was going to do that," Christine said. "I was going to graduate with my class."

She takes medication to "wake up" her brain. She does puzzles continuously to boost her memory. Instead of heading to sporting events, Christine attends a support group for people with brain injuries.

The first time Christine went to see a scary movie after the wreck, her mom asked her if she was sure she wanted to go.

"I was like, 'Mom, don't worry about it. By the time I leave, I'll not remember anything that happened in the movie.'"

She remembers feelings more than events. She can tell whether she liked or hated a movie, for example, but she can't recall specific scenes.

Those memories fall into the void that swallowed almost a year full of them both before and after the crash.

"It's awkward," Christine said. "How do you describe it- That is a part of my life that I don't remember."

Her personality has changed. She never would have cussed before, but the injury to her brain damaged her sense of tact.

"I say what a lot of people are thinking," Christine said. "For a long time, every time I'd cuss, I'd be like, 'I'm sorry.'"

When the Watsons travel to Roanoke, Christine insists on visiting the rehabilitation unit there that gave her a second chance. She talks to the patients; many have been told of her story and how far she has come.

Christine has learned some important lessons.

"How precious some of the simplest things in life are - even life itself," Christine said. "I am grateful for them, the little things we take for granted every day.

"I'm going to work my hardest to make me the best me that I can be, despite this catastrophe I have been dealt."