Overcoming; Woman's book recounts lives of sons injured in accident.

PositionLOCAL NEWS

Byline: Elaine Thompson

NORTHBORO - It's tough for a lot of people to finish college, overcome major obstacles, have a successful life, and strive to help and inspire others. Imagine doing all that - as a quadriplegic.

That's the story of the lives of Reed B. and Robert S. Nixon, who were paralyzed in a motor vehicle crash 16 years ago. Their mother, Sheryl Brown Nixon, just self-published a book called "In the Blink of an Eye: The Reed and Rob Nixon Story" ($16.95, Outskirts Press). The mother of six and grandmother of 16 said the book is a story of love, courage and faith.

"I hope to encourage people that in any trials that they're going through, it really is a choice. We can choose to be happy or we can choose to be bitter and angry. The rest of our life can be wonderful or it can be awful," Mrs. Nixon said during a recent interview at the family's 26 Wiles Farm Road home.

The book begins with the phone call that Mrs. Nixon received at 9:40 p.m. April 4, 1995, telling her that four of her children had been in a car crash and that two of them, Rob and Reed, then 16 and 17, had been taken by Life Flight to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. Reed was driving a van full of family members and friends home from a church meeting in Marlboro when the van flipped over near Route 20.

When Mrs. Nixon and her husband, Mark R. Nixon, a professor and department chairman at Bentley University, got to the hospital, doctors gave them the life-altering news that both boys' necks were broken and that they were paralyzed and on ventilators.

The book goes on to tell about the family's experiences and the outpouring of support from so many people, most they didn't even know.

While Rob and Reed were still in the hospital, a man who was dying of cancer had his daughters give his handicapped-accessible van to the Nixons. Shortly after that, five area builders constructed a 1,100-square-foot first-floor addition to the family's home. It included a bedroom each for Rob and Reed, a kitchen, bathroom and living area.

St. Rose of Lima parishioners sent the family a check for $4,200. Then checks came in from people from all over the country whom the family did not even know. Two months after the accident, 1,000 people raised more than $55,000 for the brothers during the first of four annual 5K road races held to benefit them.

"We have been so blessed," Mrs. Nixon said.

She said she never set out to write a book. She just recorded experiences in her journal as...

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