Returning Home to a Different World

A St. Joseph woman, paralyzed after a team building sorority exercise went wrong....finally returns home. After spending eight months in a Colorado hospital recovering from a shattered vertebrae..20-year old Candice Minear is ready to get back to a normal life. After five major surgeries...and plenty of physical therapy...Candice Minear begins a life that`s been forever changed. Candice says it`s the little things that she may never be able to do. "Not being able to got to the bathroom like a regular person, not being able to pick things up myself. Walking you can live without...its just being able to do things on your own," says Candice. A once active and athletic 20-year old Missouri State University student...is now strapped in this wheelchair after a sorority pledging exercise turned tragic. "I can`t just move my wrist and bend my fingers like that. Candice can barely move her hands and she can`t move anything from the chest down. After eight months in the hospital....and a tough road to recovery, yeserday friends and family welcomed her home. "We had a big party for her last night when she got home...and there was a lot of people here," said Linda Minear, Candice`s mother. Candice is already making long strides...when comes to being able to do things on her own. She says the biggest thing she`s done yet on her own..is put on eyeliner. And while her world has changed....she wants to make it clear that she hasnt. I`m glad that my friends knew what I was like before the accident. Because they can remember me that way if they choose....but they need to realize I`m still the same person on the inside," says Candice. The same person that`s ready to get back to that same life. She says there a lot of things she cant wait to do.. "Going out with my friends...and training them how to put me in and out of a car and seeing everybody," she said. Now that she`s home she`s looking forward to enjoying her family, friends, and future. Candice`s family wants to thank all who have supported her. This summer Candice is hoping to enroll at Missouri Western to continue with school.