Sep. 22--Erica Rockley never wanted to be homecoming queen. She played sports at Raytown High, the kind where your uniform gets dirty. She was a catcher, a tough one. Since she was 8 years old, Rockley had been protecting home plate in youth leagues all around town. She loved the contact. You can't really be a catcher unless you can brick-wall anyone -- ANYONE! -- who tries to score on you. She once broke a girl's nose in a collision and started a fight after another. Rockley had never been hurt herself. On Aug. 22, Rockley was waiting on a relay throw in a Raytown-Notre Dame de Sion game. It was only the second game of the season, first inning, no score. Rockley was up the line and felt the runner closing in. And then, nothing. Rockley woke up lying in the dirt around home plate. A teammate, Shanna Clausen, cradled her head. Confused and scared, Rockley cried hard and assured her friend, "I promise, I'm OK." But Erica Rockley could not move.
"If there was anything in her body telling her she was OK," Clausen thought, "she would get up." Rockley's neck had snapped back awkwardly after the collision. Later she would be diagnosed with a spinal cord injury. She had no feeling in her arms or legs but Rockley insisted that her back hurt. A good sign, everyone thought. Rockley was strapped carefully to a backboard and taken to an emergency room. Her father rode in the ambulance, while her mother and younger sister drove so fast they beat them there. That night, Rockley was transferred to Children's Mercy Hospital. Somehow, Raytown played the rest of the game. They lost. Then, days later, with Rockley foremost on their minds, her teammates did something she could never have imagined: They nominated her for homecoming queen. Homecoming was a little more than three weeks away. In her hospital bed, Rockley heard about the gesture. Now, she wanted it. More than that, she wanted to walk onto the football field with the rest of the homecoming court. She made a vow to friends and family. "I'm going to do it," Rockley said. -- -- -- It was softball that had brought Mary Jane and Mark Rockley together. They met in 1982 while playing in a co-ed slow pitch league in Buckner. Mary Jane, of course, was the catcher. After they got married, she still caught, once when she was six months pregnant with Erica. As Mary Jane tossed in her dorm-room bed at Children's Mercy -- with her 17-year-old daughter down the hall in pediatric intensive care -- memories and fear washed over her. "I couldn't sleep," Mary Jane said. "Not that first night, I know I didn't." Mary Jane and Mark would soon be able to rest a little easier. The first bit of good news practically leaped off the X-ray. Rockley had no breaks, no fractures, no structural damage to her spine. Within 24 hours of the collision, she was diagnosed with a spinal cord contusion and a concussion. A couple of days later, her headache was wearing off. Even better, the feeling was returning to her body, beginning with the fingers. She could handle a spoon and sit up in bed. She was sitting up when a doctor said that her softball days were over. "It wasn't heartbreaking, it was everything-breaking, it was soul-breaking," Rockley said. "That was (my) life. To have somebody take that away..." She sighed. "It's ripped away." Rockley allowed herself to cry. Softball had been a huge part of her life, passed down to her like an heirloom, going back to that day when she won her first catching job by being the only girl who dared to play in the dirt. "Those girls didn't want to catch," her mother remembered. "But she wanted to be where the action was." Nearly a decade of playing in the dirt had led to a promising senior year at Raytown and, perhaps after that, college ball. Rockley was expecting big things for Raytown, which was coming off its first winning season in years. She was the team leader, a returning all-district player who clapped hard for her teammates after every good play. In the season opener, Raytown defeated Blue Springs South in the Greater Kansas City tournament. After a 15-minute break, the Bluejays would play their second game. The bracket read: Notre Dame de Sion. "It was our time. It was Raytown's time to shine," Rockley said. "This year was going to be amazing." Back in her bed, the crying suddenly stopped. Rockley had given herself five minutes to mourn. Then, it was time to move on. She had no choice. But she still couldn't feel her legs. Homecoming dance? She would need to walk first. "From there I knew that my goal was to walk on that football field," Rockley said. "With braces or whatever, I wanted to walk to show everybody that I could, to show myself that I could." She had plenty of time. Three whole weeks.
-- -- -- Rockley clenched her teeth and winced. She could barely bend her legs while balancing on her walker. This was the beginning of aggressive rehab at Children's Mercy. She never thought learning to walk again would be so hard. "They told me there would be slow days," Rockley said. "I had to learn patience." It was hard for her father, too. When Erica stumbled, Mark Rockley wanted to rush to her side, dust her off like he did after she got her first black eye. She was 5 then, diving head first and pretending to be a Chiefs receiver inside the living room. She crashed into a corner of the sofa. Mark watched his daughter take awkward, uncomfortable steps and felt helpless. "I can't baby her," Mark said. "You want to do that as a parent, but you can't." Erica didn't want the pity anyway. Never let 'em see you cry. She lived by that. If she got clobbered at home plate, she would retreat to a corner in the dugout with her helmet still on. There, she let out the tears before returning to the game. Teammates had never seen her hurt. She wasn't about to let them see her mope around a hospital, either. "When she was in a wheelchair, I started crying," teammate Kristen Lutman said. "And she said, 'I'm going to walk again, I promise.' She got up and held my arms and said, 'See! I'm getting better.' "Rock doesn't show pain." The swelling of her spine reduced, and Rockley was released from Children's Mercy on Sept. 1, a week earlier than expected. She was still weak and using a walker, so she could not return to school yet. She spent seven hours every day at the Rehabilitation Institute. With aggressive rehab and shock therapy, a wake-up call to her muscles, Rockley began taking robotic steps Sept. 5. But Rockley missed her teammates. So after long days of rehab, she would ride with her mother to the ballpark.
Two days before homecoming, on Sept. 13, Rockley stopped by the Raytown dugout during the O'Hara game. The Bluejays had lost four straight before her visit, and they were losing again. Players said it was no coincidence that after she arrived, Raytown roused from an early deficit and scored six decisive runs in the sixth inning. Afterward, parents and friends greeted her with hugs. She smiled and cracked jokes about her walker. Sure, Erica told them, she would be ready for homecoming.
"I'm going to be honest. I only did the walker for the team," Rockley said later that night while maneuvering herself into a wheelchair. "I'm dying and can't walk anymore." -- -- -- Last Friday night, 24 days after she was injured, Rockley arrived at Raytown High School.
She was glad she brought the gold sandals. She hadn't been shoe shopping in over a year -- it's hard to find cute size 12s -- but she picked the perfect flats to match her flowing brown dress. The comfortable soles made all that standing around bearable. Nobody could see her ankles shaking as she waited with the homecoming court. She held on to her escort's left arm and her father's right. Less than seven minutes remained until halftime of the Raytown-Excelsior Springs football game and the introduction of the homecoming court. Excelsior Springs was driving down the field. Another touchdown would stop the clock. Rockley didn't care. She liked having friends leave the stands just to hug her. They looked her up and down. She had worn mascara before but this may have been the first time they had seen her all dolled up. Clausen did her makeup while Rockley, without any help, curled the tips of her long brown hair. People noticed. "The most beautiful girl I've seen in my life," a woman said while Rockley blushed. "You look sexy." Rockley knew she was killing that dress. A week before homecoming, Rockley went shopping for something special. But she almost left it on the rack. When she rolled into a department store dressing room in her wheelchair, a teenage girl admiring herself in the mirror stopped smiling and stared at Rockley. "She looked at me like I wasn't even a normal girl," Rockley said, her voice breaking. "I never want to be looked at that way again. "It was horrible. I'm a normal teenager. A normal person. For the first time, I didn't feel like trying on dresses. I didn't want to look at myself in the mirror." As the days passed and her legs steadied, Rockley found her way back to normal again. She was ready to make good on her promise. Her softball season gone, homecoming was all she had left. The football players exited at halftime, making room for the well-dressed couples. Rockley gripped her escort's arm. The underclassmen court was announced first, then finally, the seniors. A swell of cheers drowned out her name over the public address system. Rockley smiled. She took slow and careful steps onto the soft grass around the 45-yard-line. She walked several yards to meet the group and smiled again. She sat with her friends during the second half and went home exhausted. The next night at the homecoming dance, her peers named her homecoming queen. She cried in front of everyone. "You know how some tomboys secretly have a dream that they want to be homecoming queen? But I never wanted to be that," Rockley said. "I'd rather be all-state than homecoming queen. Then all of a sudden, I get crowned. I'm homecoming queen for Raytown. That's just weird. Then I cry about it! Oh, man! "It wasn't necessarily that I won queen, it's that I'm standing there and I could be in a wheelchair. Every step I take is like 'THANK YOU!' I can walk."
Well, Erica is now graduating this December and engaged! She will be getting married to her best friend, Ryan in July. Saturday we had a 'panty party' for her. She was so excited and kept saying, "This is like the first of my wedding party showers!" Erica is such a humble girl and didn't even want people to bring her anything, she just wanted to spend time with her girlfriends.
Erica is a miracle. She can walk and run. She can't feel anything in her feet or hands, so she has to be careful when cooking or when she is outside in the cold. I'm so glad I have had the opportunity to meet this girl. She is an inspiration to me and so many others.
Congrats to the future, Mrs. Davis!
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