City: Gallatin Gateway

Brain Injury: Traumatic Brain Injury & Concussion Sept. 2000; my husband was out of town, but came home for a few days.

Explanation of Mask:  I am grateful to be alive after a drunk driver on Huffine Ln, Bozeman rear-ended my VW Beetle.  He was driving >80MPH with his headlights off, 10pm and knocked my car into a ditch.  A highway patrolman found me 2 hours later and saved my life.  On a funny note, Costco gave me a new back of Kirkland dog food which was behind the front seat of my VW and exploded all over the car and in a ditch – it was like a giant airbag and saved my life.  A piece of glass severed a nerve in forehead so I lost my sense of smell, but I joke that I don’t have to smell “dog farts” (we had yellow labs) anymore!  When I got home from hospital, my two daughters took care of me (cracked ribs, left knee and lower back) and our yellow lab “Chipper” never left my side.  A famous neuroscientist has evidence that mammals like dogs share the same part of the brain we have where they show “empathy and compassion.”