Access Blogs
AH Inspiration: Maria's Day With Tara Llanes
By Maria Menounos
It's days like today when I love my job most. Being a reporter can, at times, give me tremendous perspective. I travel the globe to interview all different types of people, experiencing all different kinds of things: from my conversation with the health minister of South Africa about the growing AIDS crisis, to Michael J. Fox and his battle with Parkinson’s, to… Tara Llanes.
I recently interviewed Tara Llanes, a professional biker who was at the top of her game until a terrible crash on September 1, 2007 took her legs right out from underneath her. Before the crash she was a celebrity to the sport, posing in Maxim magazine, in ads for Subaru, AT&T, a beautiful, smart and determined athlete. I visited her at Craig’s Hospital -- a world-renowned hospital for spinal cord injuries. I saw so many people whose lives changed in an instant. Fifty percent of them were there because of car crashes. Second to car crashes was falls (as simple as a flight of stairs for one 15-year-old) and lastly, athletic accidents. I saw people that could only use their mouths to communicate or move. Tara is luckier than those, for sure, as she still has the power of her upper body.
Truly a moving day and a reminder of how lucky all of us are to be healthy and able to see and walk. I kept holding back the tears in this facility. Tomorrow, it could be you or I in there. Someone texting or talking on a cell phone while driving could cause a wreck. We could easily trip and fall down some stairs. Even the smallest luxuries, like having the ability to go to the bathroom alone, would be gone.
As sad as I am, I am inspired by Tara. She has an amazing spirit. The competitor in her is determined to walk again, and ride. She is fearless and hysterical, cracking jokes and even mooning our cameraman in the pool! Ha!! She has a wonderful network of family and friends helping her along the way as well as an amazing outpouring of support from strangers who hear about her story. When she told me of the strangers who had helped along the way, it reminded me of how wonderful people can be. And THAT brought me to tears!
She has a grueling rehab schedule that winded me as I followed her along for an entire day of workouts. She has made incredible progress here. The workouts have helped her to move her legs. And I believe, and pray, that she will walk again, even though the doctor who performed her back surgery following the accident said she never will. In the meantime, Tara has 2 more weeks at this facility and will be heading back home to California where she’ll continue with more treatments. She has a new set of wheels waiting for her as Jeep, the sponsor of the race she was injured in, gave her a new car equipped with everything she needs. Now, learning how to drive the damn thing is a whole other story - she was telling me about how hard it was to learn! :-)
She is learning everything from how to move around her house, to going through security at airports, to driving - all the basics of independence. You’d be surprised how difficult things get when your home isn’t equipped with wheelchair accessible bathrooms etc. Tara described being at the rehab center as a bubble, everything is made to make it easy on them. Well… home life will be an entirely different story. Hopefully, the support will keep coming Tara’s way until she can fully recover.
If you have some time, take a peek at her Web site. Donations to her medical costs can be made there or maybe you can even just send her an email -- she loooves them -- and they totally help.
My job is to report on stories of interest or importance - I hope that I also can give you the feeling of having been right there with me to see what I saw, because what I saw was a girl who was just like me or you, who one day, suddenly, had her life turned upside down. It could happen to any of us. I wouldn’t want anyone to have to wait until it hits close to home to feel for someone in her case, or remember that there is a lot of pain and suffering out there in the world and far worse situations than the ones we may be complaining about at any given moment.
Hi i am emailing from the island of St.Lucia 'Simply Beautiful', and i would like to get in touch with Tara. If i can make it so can Tara. Life is not fair but stuff happens (obstacles are meant to make us better, not bitter). Things happen for a reason, God knows the future, we can only live the present and look back at the past, and still God still predicts the next hour in the present.
We may never seem to understand at first the predicament, but soon we may just be able to pick up the advantages, and walk with our heads held high. please feel free to contact me. you may wonder the necessity in doing so. but most times, words like these can only be said from the point of one's own experience. and i just thought telling you this much can bring comfort and hope to your side of life. thank you in advance for your attention.
sincerely
N.F. Edmund
St Lucia.
That video of the interview was absolutly amazing. She is my all time favorite rider and one of my good friends. She is so strong in every way, from riding, to her abilitly to focus. Im so happy you got to meet her, she is one amazing person with determination we all wish we had. The video and your post put tears in my eyes, but thank you because I love seeing her progress more and more.