Last Wednesday, Nora Arndt and her wife, Mary, faced what would be unimaginable for any parent.
One of their children, 14-year-old April Arndt, was struck by a train while on the way home from the Boys and Girls Club at the Frontenac Mall.
“It finishes at eight o’clock and we expect them home around 8:30, and they didn’t show up,” says Nora Arndt.
Concern set in for the parents of four and they left to go see if they could find them.
When they arrived at the train tracks around the corner from the Boys and Girls Club, they saw emergency vehicles, and panic set in.
“I was fearing the worst,” says Arndt. “A big part of me was hoping that it wasn’t my child, but at the same time, the gut feeling was like ‘It’s my child.'”
Quickly they confirmed with police that it was indeed their child, and from there, it was straight to the hospital.
April sustained a laundry list of injuries including a collapsed lung, head and neck trauma, broken ribs and more, but miraculously survived, and within days was awake and talking again.
“Last week this time, we didn’t even know if they were going to be alive, and now they’re talking, and that’s just incredible,” says Mary Arndt, April’s stepmother.
April’s parents say they were asking about friends, family, and most of all their beloved dog Shadow, who they sleep with every single night.
A family friend set up a GoFundMe account following the accident, which has shattered its initial goal of $500, garnering over $3,500 as of Wednesday.
With a long road of recovery ahead for April, the Arndts say that the support from the community has strengthened their resolve, and that they’re only looking forward.
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