Profile of Annalyn Peele - An Essay from 2007

Below you will find an essay I wrote after interviewing and receiving permission from Annalyn Peele. Currently, Annalyn is enrolled in the Medical College of Georgia as a medical student. She has came a long way and is still an inspiration to many people including me. Annalyn is truly a living testimony of God's love and faith in him.

It was the summer of 1999, and the Peele family had just loaded up their white mini-van and was headed toward Macon, Georgia to visit a fellow church member in the hospital. Just in the outskirts of town, they were heading around a curve and saw a large gas truck coming directly towards them. The truck had just topped the hill traveling at eighty miles per hour in a fifty-five mile per hour zone when the driver saw a car in front of him stopped. The driver slammed on brakes causing his trailer to jack knife into the opposite lane in which the Peele family’s van was traveling. The Peele’s van hit the side of the truck with a very hard force of impact.

            Annalyn Peele was born in January of 1986. She has two wonderful parents, Jerry and Karen Peele, and is blessed with two younger twin sisters, Kristen and Kellie Peele. As the daughter of a preacher, she was given the opportunity to live in more than one place throughout her childhood. She lived in Alma, Georgia, for a year, followed by Orlando, Florida, for seven years, and then Eastman, Georgia, where her family currently resides. Annalyn stood at five feet five inches tall, and she was a cheerleader during her first two years of middle school. She loved to tumble, stunt, and cheer at football games and pep rallies. Annalyn has been about four feet six inches tall since the summer after her seventh grade year due to injuries from the car wreck. During her family’s car accident, the impact of the gas truck hitting their van shattered the lower L-4 vertebrae in her back. Annalyn was slung very hard, and her head hit the window, causing a concussion. She also broke her ankle and sustained internal damage to her intestines. Both Annalyn and her sister Kellie were airlifted to Macon, Georgia. Annalyn was there for about a week. Annalyn stated, “I did not wake up for about a week, almost in a drug induced coma. I would wake up, but I do not remember it; they were trying to suppress my pain.” The doctors told Annalyn’s parents that she would be fine, and she would be able to walk again.

After the week in Macon, Annalyn was transferred to Shepherds Spinal Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. While in Atlanta, Annalyn had major back surgery. The doctors put three rods in Annalyn’s back, took some of the bone from her hip, and put it over the rod. Following surgery, Annalyn had to learn to sit-up by herself, and she began to lift two pound weights. The doctors soon told her parents that Annalyn would have to be in a wheelchair due to paralysis of the lower extremities. Annalyn said, “I am paralyzed in my hips and the back of my legs from my knees down. I can move my quadriceps, but not my waist.” Annalyn stayed in Atlanta for three months doing rehabilitation and trying to learn to move the muscle that she did have in her leg. Annalyn stated, “I started with braces that came to my hip, trying to walk. It was very hard. Eventually, I had braces that came to my knee; I was just very slow with those. This experience was very difficult for me because before the wreck I was a cheerleader, and I loved it. That was probably the biggest devastation when they told me I would not be able to walk again.” Annalyn also stated, “Some of the simplest things soon became the most difficult to overcome, such as sitting up, moving from my wheelchair to my bed, and putting on clothes. They began to get easier with time though.”

After speaking with Annalyn, I asked her how someone in her situation is still full of joy and acts as though nothing is wrong, and she replied,

Honestly, I know that you know this has not been easy for me. But being a Christian, it has just put a totally different perspective on this. I was upset and all, but while I was in Atlanta, my dad and I prayed every day. We kept reading the Bible; Romans 8:28 states, ‘And we know that God causes all things to work together for the good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.’ I know that God has a purpose, and God had a purpose for me being in that accident. I have faith, and I know that I will be able to walk again when I get to Heaven, and that is why I am not totally discouraged. For us, at first it was hard to accept that things would be the way they are. It is all about God’s glory. If he gets more glory out of me being in a wheelchair, then I know it is best this way. Being in a wheelchair has taught me to trust God and everything he does. Every time a person asks how this happened, I get a chance to share my testimony. People ask me all the time what happened; some people are very rude about it and others are not. I do not mind them asking, because I would want to ask too if I was them. I tell them I was in a bad car accident and I have paralysis in my leg. They always tell me that I seem so happy, and I tell them that it is because of God and I cannot help that my joy overflows with hope and faith in God.

In high school, Annalyn stayed busy. She had a 4.0 grade point average, she was the class president for four years, student council member, first runner up on Homecoming court, Prom Princess in eleventh grade, and Prom Queen in twelfth grade, a member of the honors classes, a Senior Superlative, and she was voted “Best All Around” by her fellow classmates. After she graduated with honors, she attended Middle Georgia College in Cochran, Georgia, for two years, and then she transferred to the University of Georgia, where she is currently enrolled. She said, “Now, I am at UGA majoring in Nutrition Science. I want to be a Physician’s Assistant. I have always wanted to be a doctor. I just want to help people and not only medically, but I want to be able to relate to them. After UGA, I will go the Medical College of Georgia to PA school.” Annalyn currently resides in a handicap accessible room at the University of Georgia. She recently traveled to Hawaii with her family, and also she spent nine weeks in Daytona Beach, Florida working with the University of Georgia’s Campus Outreach group. She is also a member of Alpha Zeta and she holds a grade point average of 3.9. She will be quick to tell you that she stays busy. She works out four times a week, goes to class, attends prayer meeting, Campus Outreach groups, has study groups, and goes to the football games on Saturdays. She also spends a lot of time with different people.

One may wonder how Annalyn exercises. When I asked, she replied,

I cannot run, do gymnastics, or anything like that, but there are a lot of things I can do with what I have. I can now walk a mile in about thirty minutes on a treadmill. I hold onto the sides and slowly walk. Actually, this summer, I learned how to do handicap equipped wakeboarding. It is adapted for a person in a wheelchair. It is a lot of fun. I also love to have slip and slides at my house. My sisters and I get a tarp and lay it out on the huge hill in our backyard, and we wet it and put soap on it. Then we invite people over, and it is a blast!

 Annalyn also told me, “I absolutely love practical jokes. Someone who has never met me will see me go flying in my wheelchair. I will fly by in it and quickly flip myself out of it and start laughing. I also love to go roll houses with toilet paper in my hometown with my friends. That has always been a fun pastime.”

I have always wondered how someone who is confined to a wheelchair could drive a car. Annalyn explained,

I was the youngest kid at the hospital in Atlanta. I did not even think about driving then, yet all of them had to learn to drive. I knew when I did begin that I would have to get hand controls. Now, I love them. I can drive fine and even if I could use pedals, I love my hand controls they are so much fun. They did take a while to get use to, but now I can drive just like anyone else can.

I also asked her how many wheelchairs she had, and she answered, “I currently have four, but I have gone through about five. I love putting Christmas lights on my wheels at Christmas time!” I asked Annalyn, what kinds of changes at her home were made in order for her to be able to get around, and she replied, “We had to build a ramp, adjust doorways, and eventually we bought a new house. In our new house, we put in an elevator, and I have a walk in shower with a shower chair.” I also asked, “Do you still go to doctors and therapy?” She responded, “I went to therapy a total of nine months, and I really have not had any complications, and I currently do not go to any doctors unless I get sick.”

Annalyn Peele is a living testimony. I do not know a single person that is as energetic, smart, humorous, lively, pretty, and as happy as her. She is an amazing person and a strong Christian. By just simply watching her, one can see all of the amazing things that she can do in her situation. She acts as though nothing is wrong. Her situation has not stopped her from reaching her goals and continuing to live her life. She simply does her best at everything she can and puts all of her hope in God. She stated, “I just totally rely on God, and apart from Him, nothing else matters.” Annalyn has truly been an inspiration to me, and she is a wonderful example and a role model for anyone who has ever had any experience they thought they could not overcome. Through talking to her, one can come to understand that any individual can truly get through any situation if they simply have faith and rely on God.

April Already???!!!???

In the midst of school, I am now 50 days away from being a married woman! How exciting is it to know that God placed two hearts together to become one family in 50 days! As we are reading through some relationship books recommended by our pastor who is marrying us, we are gaining more and more respect for each other and things are coming together slowly.

Our house is coming together, Benton continues to work on it while I am in school and when I am home, I like to go over and straighten up and help decorate! I even tried to do some yard work one day.

Also going on right now, is I am working on second-round dietetic internship applications, and man is it a lot of work during the hardest week of school ever! I know God has a plan for me, but I just had such a good feeling about the University of Northern Colorado and then I didn't get matched. So now, I am applying for three or four more and will find out in the next few weeks!

If I don't get matched, I will be looking for jobs and beginning graduate school in the fall! Also, I will be reapplying for the fall round of internships which begins in January of next year.

I trust God with this though, and even though I do not understand it right now, he knows best and knows exactly what will happen after graduation.

Currently, my great aunt June is passing away pretty quickly. In 1912, my great-grandmother Lizzie, a twin, was born. Years later she married my great-grandad who I never met, Sam Barton. They wed and had 12 kids! 6 boys and 6 girls, 6 blonde's and 6 brunettes, 6 blue eyes and 6 brown eyes. How amazing is that?!?!?

In 2006 Granny Barton passed away at the age of 94. She outlived some of her children and some outlived her. Currently, 5 of the 6 boys have passed: David, Charles, Bobby, Donald, and Jerry. Danny is a pastor and he is still a healthy man with 4 grown children and a 2 grandkids and one on the way! As for the girls, all 6 are still alive: Vivian, Faye, Evelyn, Sue, Beth, and June. And currently, Aunt June is very sick with cancer in both lungs and pneumonia. This is such a strong family that is close and has grown even closer over the years. How sad it is to see one suffering, but I know that watching her suffer is worse than anything I've ever seen. I know that soon God will make her suffering stop, and in the midst of all this business, her brother and sisters will be together for a few days from miles and miles around, they will be together again.

How great is it that God gives us family? Family is a backbone of who we are as we grow and I love knowing that when family fails or passes that we still have our father, Jesus Christ to turn to in the midst of pain and darkness.

-ME