Man regains will to live after hit by drunken driver

Thursday, June 26, 1997 | 11:49 a.m.

Now, as he looks back and recalls that evening of Aug. 7, 1995, he wonders how he survived that nightmare - a nightmare that began when a drunken driver traveling at 120 miles per hour down Johnson Lane struck George's 1994 Mazda pickup truck head-on, instantly killing his 42-year-old wife, Judy.

The last thing George remembered was seeing bright lights shining directly in his eyes and minutes later feeling Judy's lifeless body next to him.

"Help my wife!" George kept repeating over and over.

But not until a few days later was he told that Judy didn't make it. That's when George lost it. He didn't want to live without his best friend.

Back then, George was a broken man physically and emotionally. He suffered horribly during those four months of hospital care and then months and months of rehabilitation. Morphine was his constant companion as doctors tried to mend his shattered body. He eventually lost his right eye, and for a long time doctors talked about removing his right foot.

Then the day came when a nurse gave George control over the intravenous-flud bag dripping morphine into his arm. She told him all he had to do was press the button for relief.

And press the button he did. He kept pressing and pressing as fast as he could - to end it all. Without Judy, he figured he had nothing to live for.

As he frantically pressed away, Robert Pokorny, his friend since junior high and constant companion during those hospital days, noticed what George was trying to do. He grabbed his arm and gave him a lecture that he'll never forget.

"He told me I was being selfish," George says. "He said the loss of Judy was too much to deal with and that I'd hurt all my friends and family even more if I took my life. I thought about what he said for a long time, and realized that maybe he was right. Maybe I was being selfish."

George sometimes wondered why he was the sole survivor of that horrible crash. The driver of the 1995 Corvette, along with his girlfriend and her 11-year-old son, were killed.

"I thought about a lot of things these past years, like why I didn't die instead of Judy," he says. "Now I kind of think that life goes on. I don't know why my life goes on and not Judy's, but there must be a purpose in all of this."

That purpose just may be in Evelyn, the attractive 40-year-old mother of Eli, 20, and Elizabeth, 17, whom he met at a Mothers Against Drunk Drivers victim-impact panel and married April 5.

She, too, was the victim of a drunken driver. She sustained massive injuries to her legs and understands more than anyone what George has gone through.

In a way, a tragic bond brought them together. Their love and support of each other has carried them through some pretty tough times.

"I've learned that life is pretty fragile," George says. "People think it can't happen to them, but it can. It's not the end of the world. It's possible to continue with your life and regain a positive outlook.

"When I was asking why and blaming God and feeling angry at the guy who did this to us, I didn't think there was going to be a tomorrow. But I tried to put on a happy face and not let it get me down."

for a brief moment George's voice breaks and a tear escapes from his eye. He stops, contains himself and bravely looks back up.

"Everything that goes around really does come around," he says. "And maybe if I'm a good person while I'm here, instead of coming back as a worm maybe I'll come back as an eagle."

He laughs softly and then adds, "I'm grateful to be here."