Linda Ripa was born in 1972, according to a post on her father Joe’sFacebookprofile.
Ripa was badly injured in the crash.
She had dozens of broken bones, including a crushed pelvis.
“[P]eople at the accident scene were amazing,” she said.
“People stayed there with me until the ambulance came.
One man kept wiping blood from my face.
Another person held my neck up.
Many asked what they could do.”
Thankfully, the baby began to respond after a month in a coma.
He was ultimately born almost two months premature.
That meant she wasn’t able to parent her newborn the way she would’ve wanted.
“It was the worst thing you could imagine.
“Any mother would tell you that.
“They are older and raising their grandchild,” she said.
“My mother is a 24-hour-a-day nurse to my sister.”
At the time, Linda’s prognosis wasn’t particularly good.
“She will never, ever know a normal life again,” Kelly said.
“And there’s nothing they can do.”
“They called me the names you might imagine, as if it was my fault.
Family turned out to be crucial to Linda’s recovery, and she no longer requires round-the-clock care.
Still, Linda’s father Joe Ripa frequently shouts out his daughter on hisFacebookpage.
The sun came out for your special day.”
“I don’t suspect I will be without pain the rest of my life.
But when I look at my son, I know I won’t give up,” she said.
Not all of her pain, however, came from the accident itself.
To everyone’s surprise, the jury granted her a $15 million settlement.
It went over well, and she jotted it down.
I didn’t think it was anything more than a story to tell Mikey and my son.
I wrote and drew a few more,” Linda recalled.
However, her family pointed out that the stories and accompanying illustrations were good.
“My father and my sister and my mother said: ‘These are great.
You should publish these,'” she said.
Ripa decided to do just that, and she linked up with a publisher.
She took the resulting book, “The Ladybug Blues,” out on a national book tour.
There’s a lesson there, too.
“You just have to adjust what you do,” Linda said.
“Thanks for our three wonderful grandkids,” Joe wrote onFacebookin 2020.
The proud grandpa also shares regular updates about Sergio, now a grown man.
In the birthday snap, Sergio poses with an open mouthed dog.
“Lena is pretty psyched about it!”
“She’s already singing!”
