MIDLOTHIAN, Texas — An event this Saturday in Midlothian will attempt to bring a sense of normalcy to a Navarro County woman whose life changed with a near-death medical mishap.
And the woman organizing the event said she is doing it simply because it's the right thing to do.
When we first met Wyndi Adkins, her plight was obvious. In an attempt to ease the pain of migraines, she agreed to elective nerve decompression surgery.
While recovering at home in Blooming Grove, she said one of the sutures became infected with strep. Toxic shock nearly killed her. To save her life, doctors amputated both of her hands and most of her feet.
"I just want to feel normal again," she told me.
The response to a GoFundMe campaign was immediate, $70,000 donated in just a few days: About half of what she needs to replace the limited and basic prosthetic hands her insurance will pay for with more modern "bionic" hands that her insurance has refused.
"For about three or four days I couldn't stop thinking about her," said Alexandra Allred, a fitness instructor and adjunct professor at Tarleton State University.
"And I was absolutely mesmerized by this woman and her tenacity. And I felt like I had to do something," she said.
Allred decided she would start by inviting Adkins to Main Street Gym in Midlothian. One of her specialties is working with adaptive athletes. She offered to help Adkins build her strength, her confidence and build the bank account needed to get her across the finish line.
"This is gonna happen. It has to happen," Allred said. "When we embrace the idea that she's ours, she's our neighbor, she's our sister, we can do this, it will happen."
This Saturday, July 27, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Main Street Gym, volunteer instructors will teach a series of fitness classes. The usual fees for the classes instead will go to the fund to help Adkins. Donations also continue to be accepted through Adkins' GoFundMe page.
"She's awesome. She's amazing," Adkins said of Allred. "I think anybody that she interacts with, they're just lucky to have her in their life. I'm extremely luck to have her in mine. One of God's little blessings that he kind of scoots in the door, and says here."
And on that day, her second-in-training at Main Street Gym, a muscle-bound blessing named Joey approached Adkins.
"You guys are an inspiration to me, 100 percent," he told them. "I want this to be home to you. I want you to feel you're able to be here like everybody else."
"Thank you," Adkins said as the trio hugged.
"I hear people say, oh well so and so thinks you're an inspiration. Or somebody on Facebook tells me you're an inspiration. But for somebody to tell me directly to my face, it made me feel really good," Adkins said of the encounter.
With enough strength training, and enough donations, Allred said Adkins might be able to get the mechanical hands she needs later this year.
"She's going to get back what she so rightly deserves," Allred said. "And it's going to be because she knows that people cared enough to give her that life. And that's us. That's Texas. We're gonna do it."
"They have no idea how much this means to me. I am truly honored," Adkins said. "I'm part of the way and I believe that we will make it the rest of the way, without a doubt."