KINDNESS
OF STRANGERS:
FdL area woman finds she wasn't as alone as she thought
A head-on collision on Highway 23 near Fond du Lac changed Mary Voell’s life just before Christmas last year.
It was the first snowfall of the season and all she recalls is her car sliding off the road and then…nothing.
“I remember a voice outside of the car saying, ‘I’m here,’ and that was it,” Mary said.
Who that voice was is anyone’s guess. Reflecting back through a yearlong journey of recovery is like looking at a series of gifts wrapped by the kindness of strangers, Mary said.“I’ve learned so much this past year…mostly how not to fear the darkness,” she said.
The dreaded phone call from police bearing bad news on Dec. 8, 2010, came to Father Dennis Druggan, rector/president of St. Lawrence Seminary in Mount Calvary, where Mary works as director of marketing and public relations.
“The roads were so slippery. I drove into town as quickly as was safe and prudent. I didn’t know how bad things were or what I would discover. I simply prayed the whole way into town for her and those who were attending her,” Druggan said.
As he entered the emergency room dressed in a brown Capuchin habit, it was Mary who asked him how he was doing.
“It’s so much Mary’s style,” Druggan said.
A shattered ankle became the bane of Mary’s life and continues today.
There have been multiple surgeries attempting to repair the crushed bones, tendons and ligaments a person needs to be able to walk, but her body keeps rejecting the donor bone.
Although a year has passed, she continues to depend on crutches, a wheelchair and help from strangers.
Four months before the accident, Mary moved from Milwaukee to a newly purchased home along County Trunk K, outside of Fond du Lac.
Busy adjusting to her new life in a new city, she never had the opportunity to make friends or get to know her neighbors.
After the accident, in shock, in pain and in traction she fought to stay in the hospital because she had no one to care for her.
“I felt like Humpty-Dumpty, needing pieces put back together again,” she said.
Through time a community built up around her. From the surgeon, Clark Searle, to nursing assistants, the staff at Villa Loretto, home care workers, neighbors, family — everyone reached out to Mary. The Kennel Inn in Eden even took in her dog, Dublin, until she recovers.
“So many of them didn’t know me but they embraced me,” she said. “It fills my heart every time I think about it.”
Her brother, Rick Voell, who also works at St. Lawrence, and his wife Carol helped out as much as possible.
Her son, Matt Voell of Milwaukee, recalls getting that first glimpse of the tangled mess that was his mother’s car and then the enormous cast on her leg.
“We didn’t celebrate Christmas that year. We just hung out, talking about the future, reflecting on the past. We were just grateful to simply have another shot at tomorrow,” he said.
Mary’s health status is like a roller coaster, Druggan said.
“She is at home. She is having surgery. She is at Villa Loretto for recovery, she is back in the hospital,” Druggan said. “And through all of this, she continues to do her job.”
From her home office, Mary writes press releases, updates the Web for St. Lawrence, has published two major magazines for the school and hosted St. Lawrence’s 150th anniversary banquet in Chicago.
Finally, a wound Vacuum Assisted Closure applied to her ankle seems to be working. A wound VAC is a device that allows people to conduct negative pressure wound therapy, a method used with chronic wounds not responding to treatment.
Matt said sometimes it takes a scare in life to feel gratitude for all a person has.
Mary said she’s learned many things about herself, especially how to survive being alone.
“All the time I think about the love and care that came from people I didn’t even know,” she said.
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