Marie P.

Marie P., 21 3/4 March 29, '75 - January 27, '97 car-train collision

WELCOME TO THE CLUB

I belong to the toughest club in the world! No, it’s not the Marines. It’s not the Green Beret, or the Navy Seals. I belong to the Compassionate Friends. We are one tough bunch, let me tell you. Though you would never suspect it as you watch us wiping away our tears. The initiation to join the club is so horrible that nobody willingly volunteers. So we are chosen. Who knows why, or how. There is no just reason. We just are.

You see, in order to become a member of our club, you have to be able to withstand insurmountable pain. The agonizing pain of having your soul ripped away from your body. Having it torn to shreds, and left strewn all over the place. You’re left alone. You slowly pick up the pieces of your soul. You try to fit the pieces together, but some of the pieces are missing. You’re left with gaping holes where once a large part of your very being existed. You’ve lost your child!

That entitles you to become a member of our club. You wish that this never happened. You want to go back to the way things were before. You don’t want to be a member of this club. But you are! So, my fellow sufferer, we look to each other for support. Like victims of a shipwreck, we tread the icy water, and cling to anything that will keep us afloat. We find solace in knowing that we are not alone. There are other people out there that can understand how we feel. For believe me, no one can even imagine what we’ve endured. In order to know, you have to be one of us, a Compassionate Friend.

David P., Marie’s Dad

Car-train collision cuts short promise of bright future
Warren woman succumbs to injuries after two-week fight
The Macomb Daily - by Norb Franz, Macomb Daily Staff Writer - January 29, 1997

Marie P's desire to help people included plans to attend nursing school.But even in death, she'll touch the lives of others through donation of her organs.

The 21 year old Warren woman's life was tragically cut short by a train that slammed into the side of a car in which she was a passenger. "Anybody she met, she touched them," Shirley P. said of her daughter, who died Monday from massive head injuries suffered in the Jan. 14 collision at the Conrail railroad crossing at 12 Mile Road.

Marie's parents on Tuesday recalled her bright outlook on life, love of people, willingness to assist others and her smile, laughter and baby blue eyes. "She just lit up a room," said her father, David.

A graduate of Warren Mott High School, where she was a cheerleader and played soccer Marie attended Oakland Community College for nearly four years and was to begin nursing courses in the fall. She worked at Mr. B's restaurant and bar in Royal Oak and enjoyed kick-boxing and inline skating.

Marie was one of four people inside the 1993 Dodge Shadow on west-bound 12 Mile, west of Van Dyke, as it approached the Conrail crossing at 1:50 a.m. Police said the driver, identified only as a 22-year-old South Carolina woman staying in Oak Park, did not see the warning flashers in time. "They had the radio on and apparently had not observed the crossing lights until it was too late," said Cpl. Robert Jucewicz, the Warren officer investigating the accident. "It was driver error." The crossing does not have gates.

Jucewicz said the driver did not deliberately attempt to beat the oncoming train as is common in many car-train crashes, but said she made a last-ditch effort to avoid impact by veering to the left and accelerating. No skid marks were seen. The train, traveling at 25 mph, slammed into the rear passenger side of the car, where Marie sat on her way home from a party the four attended, police said. Police said the other three people in the car could have been critically inured had the train not pushed the car off the tracks. The other rear-seat passenger, identified as a 22-year-old Pontiac man, was injured but has since been released from a hospital. The driver and a 21-year-old Royal Oak man riding in the front were not seriously injured. The driver had "possibly one or two" drinks, but was not intoxicated, said Jucewicz, who declined to release her blood-alcohol level. Investigators may seek a warren charging her with negligent homicide.

The Warren City Council Tuesday night directed the police department to determine if safety features can be erected at railroad crossings in the city. "We'll check them all. If we have no jurisdiction, we'll have to go to the railroad and see what they can do," Police Commissioner Jack Baird said. David P. said the 12 Mile crossing and others where injury accidents have occurred should be top priority.

After the accident, Marie was transported to Macomb Hospital center and later was transferred to William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak. Doctors there gave her little chance for survival. A neurosurgeon described the skull fractures as among the worst he had ever seen, David P. said. Within 24 hours, Marie was able to firmly press the hands of family members who stood at her bedside. She later regained consciousness and, with help, was able to sit up.

Shirley P. emotionally remembered how her daughter slowly uttered, "Mom, I love you." Marie died at 7:10 a.m. Monday at Harper Hospital, Detroit, where doctors hoped to repair an aneurysm of a carotid artery. Her parents had little time to think when asked by nurses if they would consider donating their daughter's organs. "If she could save one person's life, and that person would not go through the hell we went through, it would be worth it," Mrs. P. recalled.

Doctors removed Marie's heart, liver and kidneys. Today, while one family grieves, another may enjoy the gift of life for a loved one "saved" by Marie. In that sense, Mrs. P. hopes her daughter will still fulfill a goal of saving lives for years to come. "Hopefully, she's saved three or four people's lives. I will meet the people who have my daughter's organs, and they will live on."