Halloween is a fun holiday for most people—but as this time of year rolls around, it make one woman recount a horrendous occurrence she experienced some 10 years ago around the same time.
Marion Hedges, a mother of two, was out shopping one day before Halloween for candy one day before the holiday in East Harlem with her son. The candy wasn’t even to hand out to trick-or-treaters for Halloween—it was to donate to underserved communities. But she never got to do that.
She was on the first floor of the mall when two pre-teen boys decided to push a shopping cart over the edge several floors above her. The cart fell more than 70 feet and crashed on top of her, just missing her son by a few inches.
“I broke all my ribs and my collarbones, and my heart stopped beating,” she recently told TODAY’s Sheinelle Jones in a her first interview since the accident. Additionally, Marion suffered a traumatic brain injury and was placed in a medically induced coma once she got to the hospital that day.
It was not an easy road to recovery. It wasn’t until weeks later from the initial hospital visit that she began to regain consciousness. From there, she also had to be re-taught how to swallow and read.
To this day, again, 10 years later, Marion still struggles with vision problems, memory loss and PTSD—but she still considers herself lucky to be alive.
“My friends have said, ‘What do you mean, Marion? You’re not lucky. What happened to you is not lucky,’” she said. “I said, ‘No, I am the luckiest unlucky lady in the world.’”
So what happened to the boys who made a near-fatal decision that day? The teens that caused the accident pleaded guilty to assault charges and were sentenced to less than two years each in juvenile facilities. They never apologized or tried to contact Marion at all.
That’s okay by Marion though. She says that she doesn’t “think about forgiveness because forgiveness means that I had a negative energy begin with—and I don’t.” She just hopes that the boys are doing something to make a difference now. After the accident, that’s what Marion has been trying to do, after all.
To hear the entire exclusive interview with Marion, and how she’s using her weird “fame” for good, check out the video below.
What do you think of Marion’s recovery from such a tragic accident?