PORT ANGELES — “Patience has become my virtue — but it’s not the easiest thing.”
Wry words of wisdom, especially from a 19-year-old man. Insight comes early when you’re paralyzed below your shoulders.
Alex Ralston of Port Angeles was stricken March 28, 2004, in a head-first fall at the Port Angeles Boat Haven.
Now he’s focused — with forced patience — on graduating from Peninsula College, entering the University of Washington and embarking on a teaching career.
Meanwhile, Hailey Fox, 19, of Sequim, another casualty of a spinal injury, is answering the same career calling at the University of Victoria.
Fox is able to walk — but never again to run — after breaking two vertebrae in a 35-foot plunge from a rope swing into a ravine at Sieberts Creek on Aug. 14, 2003.
As for recovering, she’s Ralston’s equal in matter-of-factness:
“I didn’t really have a choice,” she said last week.
“Either you came back or you gave up.”