One festive night in 1997 I was drumming at the old Bear Creek Saloon. I had just gone on break when a fellow approached me. He asked about Anson Funderburgh, a famous blues guitarist I had worked with. I told him that I hadn’t seen him in a while but I thought he was touring.
He smiled. “You’re Dave Duncan, aren’t you?”
Then I said: “Wait a minute, you look familiar.” He chuckled. “I ought to. I’m Chris Pierce!”
Chris and I hadn’t seen each other since the early seventies back in Dallas. We had played in sister bands, he played bass with ‘Kegbelly’ and I played with ‘Wild Wind Rose’. In 1974, our bands were part of the rotation at a raucous club called the Silver Eagle Mining Company on Cedar Springs. (Man, if those walls could talk!) I always liked good-natured Chris and it was great seeing him again. I asked what the hell he was doing in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. He simply said: “I live here.”
Old friends meet again and again, on that old battlefield called life.
In Dallas, Chris had become a certified arborist. He had fallen in love, and married a beautiful woman named Summer, who was a goldsmith. Later, the couple moved to Pagosa Springs and became well established in town. Chris was busy with his tree company Arborilogical West, Inc. and Summer created one-of-a-kind jewelry at Summer Phillips Goldsmith, Studio and Gallery. She had been working so long at the jeweler’s bench that she developed degenerative disc disease in her neck!
Summer, Chris, Jaye and I were part of a large circle of lively friends. We all love our dogs, good music and partying, glad to be living in the mountains.
Music was still a part of Chris’s life and the two of us played together now and then. We even played a gig with the late John Graves. Both Chris and I have 8×10 photos of the three of us together playing a benefit. And there’s an inscription on mine:
3/02/02. Mr. DC Duncan, Thanks for your efforts (playing a double on your birthday) in making the benefit for the Community Center a success! Thanks, my friend ‒ John Porter.
Fast forward twenty years to the present. Chris and I have known each other for 48 years now. March 2… I’ll be 71… and on April 19, Chris turns 72. We’ve reached the part of our lives when things slow down as we settle into semi-retirement. Life is supposed to mellow out and should be more fun now, more carefree, a happy time for travel, reflection and relaxation.
But just when you least expect it – the shit hits the fan.
Recently Summer had a horrible accident. She took a nasty fall at home and had seriously damaged her problematic neck. Chris soon discovered his wife on the floor ‒ unconscious. In a matter of hours, she was airlifted to UCHealth hospital in Colorado Springs. Summer had injured her spinal cord and was now a quadriplegic. You can only imagine the terror that Chris must have experienced after being told of his wife’s dreadful condition. She would be in the ICU for 17 miserable days.
Next it was on to NeuroRestorative Colorado in Littleton, a 36-bed nursing home for neurological rehabilitation. Chris and Summer didn’t feel it was a good fit, but they were there for 27 long days. Perhaps a little panic was setting in when Chris spoke with his brother Dan in Nashville. Dan suggested that Chris call his friend Jeannie who actually certifies hospitals. Jeannie was more than helpful and recommended the Craig Hospital in Engleton, only a few miles from the dispiriting nursing home.
What a lucky break! Craig, a world renowned hospital and center of excellence, specializing in spinal cord injury rehabilitation and traumatic brain injury rehabilitation.
There are only 96 beds at the Craig Hospital and patients have to qualify to get in, but Summer was a shoe-in. Chris said that getting into Craig was the happiest day of his life! The two have nothing but praise for the hospital and its illustrious staff. And now, everyday, Summer is enduring intensive physical therapy and is putting forth a positive attitude that is, to me, almost super human. She is performing way above expectations, always going the extra mile. It’s beyond me how she has mustered the courage and will to wage this noble battle. She soldiers on fighting to regain some semblance of a normal life: the wonderful life that Chris and she enjoyed not that long ago. She is a warrior woman ‒ and she will not surrender – and by the grace of God she’s going to beat this damn thing!
“Exercise is medicinal,” says a happy Chris. “Her legs are waking up!” So are her arms, but her shoulders are another story. Some days she’s down in the dumps, and that’s certainly understandable. But like a true champion, she always bounces back with renewed vigor. I asked Chris about the prognosis and he replied somberly: “No such thing as a prognosis with a spinal injury . . . but there’s a physical therapist, a psychologist, a nutritionist for the mind, body and spirit.” Not to mention a cadre of world class specialists and nurses. She’s in good hands.
Last week technicians were scanning when they inadvertently discovered a large kidney stone. Within three days surgeons had gone in and removed the culprit. Inventive techs constructed a device that she can operate to brush her teeth. “The people here are amazing!” says Chris. Indeed the are, my friend. Now they’re fitting her for a manual wheelchair. Even a manual chair costs $4,000, but later on, the staff announced that they were gifting the chair to Summer. (Who are these people?) Soon she’ll need a motorized chair to the tune of $20,000. Chris wondered out loud about establishing a GO FUND ME, but seemed almost ashamed of accepting charity. I told him that it was simply welcoming the goodness of others looking after one of their own sisters. He seemed to take that under consideration.
Enter CaringBridge.org. Their vision and mission: “From the launch of the very first CaringBridge site, we’ve been working toward a single vision: a world where no one goes through a health journey alone. In order to turn this vision into reality, we’ve made it our mission to build bridges of care and communication providing love and support on a health journey.”
CaringBridge is a wonderful way to keep up with Summer’s progress. You can sign up now and become one of Summer’s “Dragonflies” and keep up with her progress day by day, leave messages and well wishes and if you choose, make a donation. The person in charge of the site is Kim Robason, of Decater, Texas, who posts informative progress reports regularly. As it turns out, Kim and Summer enjoy a friendship going back to junior high days in Dallas. The two actually attended a summer camp in Boulder where our Summer fell in love with the mountains.
Please go to CaringBridge.org and sign up now; you’ll be glad you did.
Looking ahead, Summer asks the staff: “What happens when you guys kick us out?” They respond: “We won’t parachute you. You’ll always be a Craig patient.” At the end of March she will be moved into an outpatient facility on campus. Summer and Chris will reside there – all the while doing occupational therapy, etc. – for perhaps two months. On April 20, the couple will celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary… and 25 years in Pagosa.
It will be a marvelous day when Chris can bring his wife home ‒ and that day could come as soon as May. But first Chris has to prepare their home for a recovering SCI (spinal cord injury) victim. Chris insists that Summer will occupy their bedroom upstairs, but that means installing a chair lift for her to negotiate the stairs, getting the bed and bath ready with safety bars and other items, and a myriad other upgrades. Their beloved dog, Jackson, will come home and things will slowly return to a more normal state. There are a lot of unanswered questions though, but that’s where faith comes in.
Summer has been receiving many cards and letters, tons of chocolate, and her room has turned into an over-stocked flower shop. All the while she keeps up with the inspirational comments from CaringBridge. I believe the Pierces are amazed at the outpouring of love and affection from all quarters.
Case in point: Chris and Summer are huge Little Feat fans ‒ as am I ‒ and they belong to a group called Feat Campers. Over the years the two have become good friends with the remaining band members and are invited to join them in places such as Jamaica – where they should be at this very moment. So it was a great thrill and a comfort that Little Feat pianist/singer Bill Payne and the others sent Summer a touching video from the island.
We are all praying for a speedy recovery and are looking forward to having Summer back in our midst. She has a long way to go but she’s making remarkable progress. I think that part of her recovery is due to the deluge of love and prayers from friends and well wishers. Please send cards and letters to Summer Pierce, Room 419, 3425 S, Clarkson St., Englewood, CO 80113
In my heart I know that, despite all the hurdles, Summer will keep up the good fight and win this battle.
She is a warrior woman, and for her, fear is just a reaction. Courage is a decision.
DC has been a frustrated musician for over fifty years, and now has decided to become a frustrated writer. Learn more at DCDuncan.com. He’ll keep you posted.