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About how even when things look darkest, you have to find the strength to keep fighting.
Even when others tell you there is no point.
As Margit speaks, her husband of 32 years listens quietly, tears welling in his eyes.
Frank Mazza, 61, knows he would not be here today if not for the persistence of his wife and children.
He might not be able to verbalize it the way he wants to, but his face reveals his thoughts.
After a June 2007 surgery left him in a coma with extensive neurological damage, Frank's family was advised to remove him from life-support.
"That just couldn't be an option," Margit said last week at the couple's Marietta home. "We weren't ready to give up."
Seven weeks after the accident, Frank woke from the coma. He knew his name and where he lived, and he was able to recognize his family.
It's been a long road since that moment, but it's one the family has traveled together.
"All we heard (from doctors) was 'He'll never this, he'll never that,'" Margit said. "We've beaten all the odds."
•••
The owner of an industrial recycling business, Frank arrived at a job site with his son, Marcus, who was driving a pickup truck with a trailer loaded with fork lifts and other machinery.
Frank got out and opened a gate to the site. As Marcus drove through, he heard the screams of his father, who had fallen beneath the wheels of the trailer.
Frank suffered fractures to the femur and tibia in his right leg and broken ankle bones in his left leg.
"To this day we're not really sure what happened," Margit said. "We don't know if he slipped, passed out — we just don't know."
Her husband, she said, does not remember the accident.
Frank underwent surgery the next day to repair the broken bones. But he didn't wake up from it. He was put on a ventilator, and his family was told he was not expected to live.
For the next three weeks, Frank remained in the intensive care unit at Greenville Memorial Hospital in Greenville, S.C. — at the time of the accident the family was living in Lexington, N.C. — where a tracheotomy was performed and a feeding tube inserted.
Doctors diagnosed Frank as having fat embolism syndrome, which occurs when fatty marrow enters the bloodstream. It can cause neurological impairment and a coma.
Although fat embolism is a common occurrence in persons with long-bone fractures, only a small percentage of people develop systematic dysfunction affecting the skin, lungs and brain.
On July 5, Frank — still in a coma — was transferred to a long-term care facility. Within five weeks of the move, he began tracking with his eyes and could whisper a word or two. Margit said he could wiggle his toe and squeeze your finger.
About six weeks later, he was moved to a rehab facility, where he displayed increased awareness and underwent physical and occupational therapy six days a week. After seven weeks, although his movement was still limited, he was released to go home and he continued outpatient therapy.
•••
The more Margit Mazza and her family researched treatments for neurological disorders, the more they read about hyperbaric oxygen therapy and stem cell therapy.
"We just weren't ready to throw in the towel and accept that he wasn't going to get any better," Margit said. "And it wasn't about us. He wanted to keep going. He wanted to talk again, to walk again."
Margit learned there was a hyperbaric oxygen treatment center in Columbia, Lancaster County. They knew the area because they had lived for 25 years in Manheim and raised their children — Marcus, 31, and Kirsten, 26 — there before moving to North Carolina.
So on Nov. 22, five months after the accident, Frank began the first of two six-week programs at The Robert M. Lombard Hyperbaric Oxygenation Medical Center on North Sixth Street.
But three weeks into the treatment, Frank developed breathing difficulties and was admitted to Hershey Medical Center. He remained there for three weeks and underwent a second tracheotomy.
On Jan. 3 Frank was transferred to Lancaster Rehab, where he remained for five weeks and continued physical, occupational and speech therapy.
It was then that Margit made the decision to move her family back to Pennsylvania.
"It just made sense," she said. "Our support system was here, and at that time we needed all the help, physically and emotionally, that we could get."
In February, Frank resumed hyperbaric oxygen treatments, completing 40 hourlong sessions in a two-month period. After a four-week break, he completed another 40 sessions.
In August 2008, Frank received his first stem-cell treatment in Tijuana, Mexico — the controversial treatment is not permitted in the U.S. — receiving 14 million stem cells from umbilical cord blood.
During the procedure, stem cells are injected through a vein and can be directed to a particular part of the body, where the healthy cells replace those that are damaged.
Within weeks, Margit and Marcus said, they began to see slight improvements. Frank continued to make strides over the next several months.
He began to take more of an interest in his surroundings, his motor control improved, the "trach" was removed and he started to speak in a normal volume, rather than a whisper, for the first time since the accident.
"One thing that was really neat was that he started to initiate conversation. He seemed to be interested in things again," Marcus said.
"They are little things to an outsider, but to us they were huge steps," Margit said. "To us they were everything."
•••
Margit wants her husband to walk again, she said while he was in another room.
"That's my goal, because I know it's his goal," she said. "But I'm also realistic. I know it may never happen. At the same time, I'm not prepared to give up believing that it will. I'm — we're — not yet willing to accept that this is all there is."
While the family remains emotionally strong, its finances are drained.
They have spent about $15,000 so far on the hyperbaric oxygen treatments and $35,000 on the stem-cell therapy. The latter is not covered by insurance.
Initially, they used their savings and then "maxxed out all the credit cards," Margit said.
Now they are trying to raise $25,000 for a second stem-cell treatment, which they feel will go far to help Frank regain control of his arms and legs so someday he might walk again.
A wine tasting and auction will be held Dec. 6 at Acorn Farms Reception and Conference Center, 3141 Mount Joy Road, to raise money. Cost is $25, and all proceeds will go to the Frank Mazza Stem Cell Fund.
In addition to the live and silent auctions, which will feature items and services donated by local businesses, the event will include performances by illusionist Ray Sterling and harpist Monika Vasey.
•••
Today, the Mazzas will have a small family dinner for Thanksgiving, and Frank is thinking about one thing.
"Turkey," he muttered. "Lots of turkey. It's been too long."
Only since July has he been able to eat without having his foods blended or chopped. His feeding tube was finally removed at the beginning of November.
"We're thankful for a lot," Margit said. "One thing this has taught me, taught all of us, is that you never know how life can change. You always think it's going to happen to other people, but this time we are the other people.
"It's been a rough road, and we're not finished yet. We're all in this together. We'll all keep fighting."
As if there was any doubt.
Tickets for the wine-tasting event are available by calling 957-6698. Donations can be sent to the Frank Mazza Stem Cell Fund, P.O. Box 7452, Lancaster, PA 17604.
