Starke family still waits, hopes

Three years ago today, Reggie Starke stopped by his house on a Monday afternoon. He grabbed his golf clubs and hurried out the door.

He had only started playing golf a year earlier, but he loved the game with a passion. A friend had invited him to play a round, and he rushed off to a local course in St. Mary’s, where he was stationed at the U.S. Naval Submarine Base at King’s Bay.

His wife, Carlis, talked to him on his cell phone shortly before 6 p.m. It was beginning to storm at the house. Within an hour, some of Reggie’s friends were knocking on her door.

She needed to get to the hospital. Fast.

Reggie had been struck by lightning. The electric charge hit him in the forehead and surged through his left lung and leg. It shredded the baseball cap he was wearing. It left him partially paralyzed and there were plenty of times the doctors seemed to suggest he wasn’t going to make it. Eventually, he was moved to the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin.

Reggie had met Carlis in the choir at the New Pleasant Grove Baptist on Cowan Street, just a block away in the Fort Hill neighborhood where his parents, Betty and Napoleon Starke, still live. He is their only child. He and Carlis were married in 1995.

Reggie was 36 at the time of the accident. His son, Reggie Jr., was 8 at the time. And his daughter, Riana, was only 1 month old when her daddy was struck by lightning.

I have keeping up with this family for several years now, and I received an encouraging e-mail from Carlis the other day.

“Reggie is truly a miracle,’’ she wrote. “He is still hanging in here by the grace of God. There is no other way to explain it. He has been doing so well.’’

She said on April 7, which happens to be her birthday, he “coughed his trachea out.’’

“His doctor at the time felt that he could do without it and asked my permission to see how he would do on his own,’’ she said. “He is doing very well and he makes a lot of sounds as though he's trying to talk. I think he gets a little frustrated and starts to cough, but he is doing great. There was also another EEG done on him and he showed signs of more brain activity. All I can say is that Reggie Sr. and all of us are incredibly blessed. God has certainly kept His hands on this situation.’’

Carlis said her mother, Alice Hollings, has come to live with her in Kingsland and has been a big help. Carlis is now taking some college courses and is majoring in psychology.

“It’s a fulfilling field to venture into and I want to do my best to help others in similar situations as I am in,’’ she said. “I want to help others deal with the emotional and legal ramifications of a tragic event and having an incapacitated spouse. During this time in my life, it has been hard to find someone who has been able to do both. I pray that the Lord use my situation to help and bless others.’’

I love this family and wish them the best.