CRANSTON
Natacha Legein doesn't remember being hit by a car on Sept. 21. She only remembers walking to her car after working in her Crepe Corner café, which was set to open for business the next day.
Her first memory was to see nothing but darkness and the feeling of letting herself go.
"I heard my husband and my children," she said. "But it was only in my head. They weren’t there."
The vision of her family was a jolt.
"It drew me back to fight," she said. "That’s when I felt so crushed and so cold."
She remembers the pain, from a fracture at the base of her skull, swelling of the brain, a fractured vertebra in her neck, broken ribs, a broken sternum, bruised lung and a fractured eye socket. But she can't recall much of anything else from her two weeks in the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
She was hit by the car on her right side. She said even the brain damage is on the right. She landed on the left side.
A concussion has left Legein with memory loss, something that has been difficult, too. It's not just forgetting things about the crash and some memories. She still finds she forgets things that happened just a few hours earlier. She's undergoing therapy for both the concussion and the many breaks her body suffered in the accident.
"It was really hard," she said. "It’s better now, But I’m not there, I'm not what I was before."
Legein is also emotional, breaking down while she talks and then apologizing for it.
After six months, she feels like if she doesn't force herself, she won't get better.
So she goes to work at the Crepe Corner for two or three hours at a time to make crepes and macaroons.
But it hurts.
"My legs feel like a thousand pounds each," she said.
After a few hours, she needs to sit down. She can't move anymore. Just driving back and forth on Broad Street, where the accident happened, she gets anxiety.
Legein feels she had to return because there is a mortgage to pay on her Smithfield home and rents on the newly opened cafés in Providence and Cranston. The COVID pandemic has challenged the business. They've had to hire more staff to get by without her.
Her husband and business partner, Anthony Adagboyi, opened the Cranston café in November, feeling he had to get it going. He's still distressed that they didn't have the grand opening she was planning for the day after the crash.
The month before the crash, they opened the Crepe Corner at 1577 Westminster St., in Providence, relocating from Smithfield. The café in Pawtuxet Village was to follow.
Her husband has been doing triple duty caring for Legein, their three young children and the businesses, while also taking her to medical appointments.
"You never know how much one person does until they are not in the picture," he said. "We are thankful we have made it this far."
Fourteen-hour days have drained Adagboyi, too.
"It’s been a lot. But I try to be grateful by saying it could have been worse," he said.
He and Legein are most emotional about the support they've gotten from the community. A GoFundMe campaign raised more than $49,000. Cards and letters from people they don't know have raised their spirits.
After six months away from the Providence location, which has an experienced manager in charge, and four in Cranston, Legein will keep pushing herself.
She knows she will get better, but she doesn't have the time to let it happen.
But she is discouraged and admits feeling depressed.
"I didn’t understand why I made it if I couldn’t be the mother and wife I was."
Two men were charged in connection with the crash that the Cranston police described as resulting from drag-racing. Their cases are pending in Superior Court.
Jacob Gardner, 19, is charged with two felony counts: driving to endanger, resulting in physical injury, and reckless driving.
George Rodrigues, 31, is facing two counts of driving to endanger, resulting in physical injury, and one of reckless driving.
The Link LonkApril 06, 2021 at 04:00PM
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Crepe Corner owner back at work after devastating injuries - The Providence Journal
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