by David Trigueiro
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Andrea “Andi” Tarter, who was partially paralyzed by a gunshot wound
last spring, said last week she is beginning to feel early signs of
potential nerve regeneration in her feet and legs. “I can wiggle my toes a tiny bit and have noticed some slight feeling sensations in my legs,” she said during an interview at her home. |
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“The doctor said it would probably be two years |
Andrea Tarter says she's beginning to get some sense of feeling back in her legs. |
before I would feel anything happening, but it’s only been six months and
it’s begun already.”
Tarter said her spinal cord was not severed by the bullet that hit her in
roughly the middle of her back. The wound caused swelling around the spinal
cord. Also, the bullet was a hollow-point that exploded as soon as it hit. A
piece of the bullet lodged between the vertebrae.
Tarter said she is still amazed at how people responded when she was
injured. “I can’t thank all those people enough for all they have done for
me, and people are still calling offering to help.”
Champion Homes donated new carpet, doors and sheetrock to renovate her home
to accommodate her wheelchair. X10 Contractor of Seattle donated a security
system through their local representative, Karen Hamilton. The Weiser Elks
Lodge built a ramp to her front door in just two days, allowing her to roll
into her house the day she came home from the hospital. Peoples Furniture
provided a new sofa and love seat. The Copper Lounge and Mann
Creek Store collected more than $2,000 in donations.
“I just broke down and cried when they told me they were donating that
money,” Tarter said, wiping away a tear. “I was like, wow! You know, people
don’t realize how wonderful people can be. Roscoe and June Comer come out
once a week and give us Bible study. The kids really enjoy it. They don’t
try to take us to church or anything, they just tell us about the Bible and
read stories for the kids.”
The donated money allowed Tarter to keep up with her bills while she was in
the hospital and to engage a lawyer to help her maintain custody of her
9-year-old twins — Dustin, who has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair,
and Miranda, who made the call to 911 when Andi was shot.
Dustin is currently living with Tarter, but Miranda is living with their
biological father and his wife in Weiser. Andi was shot May 31 by her
husband, Darren, who then turned the gun on himself, committing suicide.
“I never heard the gunshot. I didn’t know what had happened to me. I turned
around as I was falling and saw Darren turn the gun on himself, but I didn’t
see him shoot and I didn’t hear a shot. The kids were in bed asleep and
didn’t hear anything either. I lay there on the floor for what seemed like
forever, but it was probably only a couple of minutes, pounding the floor
and yelling. I could feel myself slipping away. By God’s grace Miranda got
up for a drink of water and she found me there.
“Miranda called 911, then sat beside me and held my hand. All I could think
about while I was lying there was my kids. I have to survive for my kids.”
Tarter said she can’t think why her husband would have done such a thing. “I
love him very much and really miss him. He got on well with the kids. He was
their dad. He taught them how to hunt and fish. They love him as much as I
do and they really miss him too.
“It was kind of crazy that night. We had been arguing, but we always argue.
When we were drinking things might get a little rough sometimes, but I don’t
know why he did it. I know he had been depressed. There are lots of
questions and no answers.”
Andi said Darren had a love/hate relationship with his job in the produce
section of Ridley’s Market. “He would complain that he had to go to work,
and then come home happy and full of stories about the people he’d talked to
and everything. He was really a very good person. He had a problem with
drinking. I think he had been drinking since he was 10 years old. But we
both had quit for a year and a half.
“He was upset when the little kids’ real father came back to Weiser and
started coming around... Darren thought of himself as their dad; he loved
them like his own.”
Tarter has five children in all. Two older daughters live with her first
husband in Tillamook, Ore. The oldest, Samantha, came to Weiser when her
mother was injured and stayed the entire summer. “She helped the nurses. She
cared for me. She was such a big help and so bright and happy that the
nurses started calling her Samderella. I got a T-shirt with Samderella
printed on the front when she went back to school.”
Two children from Tarter’s second marriage currently live with her, Zakry
and Dustin. Although Dustin is in a wheelchair too, Tarter said she has no
trouble caring for him. During the day she has the help of a nurse, Tanya
Fogg, who is paid by Medicaid.
“Dustin can stand up, but he can’t walk,” Tarter said. “I can lift him, but
I don’t like to, because I might bump him on the arms of my chair.”
The X10 security system being installed by Karen Hamilton will give Tarter
the ability to view every room in the house with cameras she can control
from consoles she carries with her on her wheelchair. There are also laser
motion detectors that will sound if Dustin should fall out of bed in the
night. Dustin has been provided with a call button provided by X10
subsidiary ORCA Monitoring Services that works like those advertised on
television for seniors living alone. When he pushes the button, it calls his
mother.
The ORCA system can be programmed to call any three telephone numbers in
succession, unlike many that automatically call 911 first, Hamilton
explained. It is designed with seniors living alone in mind, but is ideal
for the Tarter’s situation. Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance will
often cover these systems, especially if they allow people to continue
living at home rather than moving into assisted-living or nursing homes, she
said.
Tarter said she is finally getting fully set up in the house she and Darren
had been provided by his grandparents on the condition that they were not
drinking. “They are renting it to me now, and it is getting set up so I can
take care of it with a minimal amount of help.”
Tarter said she is really desperate for a van so she can get around on her
own. She is taking vocational classes at Treasure Valley Community College
and has to rely on friends to drive her there and anywhere else she needs to
go. “Here I am with three cars out front and I can’t drive any of them.
Tanya is my main wheels, and my friends and others have been really helpful,
but it would sure be nice if I could get around myself and take the kids
where they need to go.”
Tarter has no interest in an electric wheelchair. She said she needs her
upper body strength to look after the children and work around the house.
When not working around the house she crochets and does cross-stitching. She
specializes in wool scarves. “I like scarves long so you can wrap them
around your head when it gets cold,” she says, showing the knee-length scarf
around her own neck. “These are my new hobbies.”
Tarter said she does not plan on being confined to a wheelchair for very
long. “I plan to walk again. And when I do, I am never gonna sit down
again.”
--WEISER SIGNAL AMERICAN
12/12/05