CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Most families will spend this Father’s Day seated at a restaurant, playing on the lake or chatting around a backyard grill. One Clarksville family is hoping just to spend it together in a hospital room.
On June 12, Jerry Meadows was in a T-bone collision on his motorcycle. The father of five daughters – Sierra, Joslynn, Jennafer, Destiny and Julianna – was still in the intensive care unit at a Nashville hospital as of Friday.
According to Jennafer, Meadows broke every bone in his face, from his eyebrow to his neck. He also dislocated his shoulder, fractured his pelvis and suffered broken bones in his leg, left arm, wrist, hand and back. His lungs collapsed on the way to the hospital, and that has left him on a ventilator. After all the injuries, he’s barely able to communicate.
Taking care of each other
Jennafer said her father has a sacrificial love for his children. Following their biological mother’s departure six years ago, he has raised the kids as a single parent and consistently puts the needs of his daughters above his own.
As he begins his recovery, all five sisters are embodying his selflessness in supporting each other.
“He’s the foundation for all of us,” she said. “He’s a really good father, and he’s the reason we’re the way we are. … He’s always pushed us to do the best, and I think this would be the best thing that he would need us to do right now.”
Each of the three older sisters is doing their part to help. Sierra, the oldest at 21, has added to her duties as a stay-at-home mom by taking in her youngest siblings, Destiny, 16, and Julianna, 11.
Joslynn, 20, has visited her father every day in the hospital while balancing a job at a daycare, and 18-year-old Jennafer has organized a fundraiser for the family as they go through the process of rehabilitation, which could take months.
All donations are designated towards bills, groceries and school supplies for their sisters. Meadows, who works in construction, won’t able to return to his business until he’s fully healthy.
“I think the only thing that we’ve really been troubled about is my dad,” Jennafer said. “Finances and bills haven’t been on our mind, because we know that, as of right now, everybody is taken care of. We all have each other, (and) we’re not going to let anything go under.”
The sisters have helped one another throughout the emotional process as well. Jennafer said they have all experienced moments of heartbreak and brokenness from the situation, but the family’s tight bond has filled them with hope.
A Father’s Day wish
Meadows may be able to leave the hospital in a month’s time but will begin rehabilitation and physical therapy shortly thereafter. He hasn’t been able to open his eyes since the wreck and can only communicate by squeezing his daughters’ hands and having an increased heart rate when he hears their voices.
For Jennafer and her four sisters, that’s enough for now. They hope to visit him together this Sunday, to spend a bit of Father’s Day together, despite the ICU only allowing two visitors at a time.
“If not, my sister had mentioned that we can ask if we could all go back there just for maybe five minutes, to all see him at the same time and see if he could maybe all hear us in there with him and feel all of us in there with him.
“I think he would be extremely proud of us with what we’re doing, because he needs us a lot right now. With all of (my) sisters helping together to keep each other headstrong and to keep him OK and to remain positive altogether, I think he would be extremely proud of us.”
To donate to help the family, visit their GoFundMe page.