PORT ANGELES — She’s walking, talking and in good spirits.
That’s how family members and friends describe Ashlyn Dinius, the 9-year-old Hamilton Elementary School student who was injured in a head-on collision March 27 that killed her mother, Denise Dinius, and her mother’s boyfriend, Bernard T. DeBoard.
“She’s actually doing great,” said Sissy Thornton, Ashlyn’s aunt who hosted the girl and her father, Seth Thornton, at her home in Port Angeles for several days recently.
“She has a long road ahead of her, but she’s walking,” Thornton said Thursday.
“She’s visiting her school, though she probably won’t be going to school on a full-time basis this year.”
Ashlyn’s father flew back to North Carolina on Thursday morning after spending almost three weeks with his daughter, said family friend Jennifer Erdiner.
Once Ashlyn recovers some more from her injuries, she is likely to move to the East Coast to live with her father, Erdiner said.
Planting seeds
Besides talking and walking, Ashlyn has started doing homework and other activities, such as simple crafts and planting seeds, Thornton said.
“She will be in a brace from the waist up from two to three more months,” she said.
Ashlyn suffered various injuries from the crash that happened Easter Sunday around noon, when the car she was a passenger in crossed the centerline on U.S. Highway 101 near Shelton and smashed into an oncoming Kenworth semi.
Ashlyn suffered a torn colon, bruised spleen and lungs, bleeding to the brain and damage to the vertebra.
“[The bleeding in her brain] did damage to her eye,” Thornton said, “but doctors expect a full recovery.”