‘I couldn’t have asked for a better community’
Chase Brooks’ life took a hard turn on Oct. 12, but it also ironically became the time when he and his family learned how generous and helpful the people are in St. Charles Parish.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better community,” said Shantrese Ford, Brooks’ mother. “It would be a nightmare without their help.”
While waiting for the bus, the J.B. Martin Middle School student was hit by a car. The 11-year-old injured his face, arms and legs. He’s had plastic surgery to his face and head, although some lingering concerns have raised questions about how well they will heal.
Although the family is relatively new to the area, having moved from New Orleans to Boutte about three years ago, Ford said people stepped up to help them and it’s meant a lot to Brooks, as well as his family.
“I didn’t go to school with anybody so I don’t know everything about this parish, but I am learning just how special this parish is … it is family and community oriented,” Ford said. “My family and I couldn’t be thankful enough.”
A day after the accident with him still in the hospital, Brooks’ fellow football players wore his number, 15, or had the numerals painted on their faces in support of him, at a football game. He is a wide receiver on the team.
Brooks has six brothers and sisters, including Kendrick Jones, an state champion wrestler who graduated from Hahnville High School.
“To know the community is behind him is important to him,” Ford said.
Brooks told his mother it hurt that he couldn’t be at the game. But his fellow students thought about him, giving him a “Dress Down Day” at J.B. Martin and Mimosa Park schools.“That was so sweet,” Ford said. “Everybody has been really cooperative and empathetic.”
Eleven days later, the sixth-grader’s world flipped at home – literally.
Because of multiple broken bones in his leg, Brooks is in a wheelchair and couldn’t go to his bedroom on the second floor of their residence. A bed was placed in the living room, which partially became his bedroom and where he sleeps now, his mother said. He still struggles to sleep from the trauma, as well as the emotional distress from his life changing so drastically.
Brooks is still limited and reliant on a walker.
“We have to always have a pillow for his foot,” Ford said. “There are pillows everywhere.”
Even then, he fell out of the bed recently, but he wasn’t further injured because he landed on a pillow. Since this time, the United Way of St. Charles and Catholic Charities helped provide an electric bed with rails.
Neighbors John and Barbara Manual, also of Boutte, along with the Jehovah Witnesses, stepped in to assist the family, Ford said. A “meal train” is being organized in which volunteers prepare meals to bring them food daily.
A J.B. Martin teacher comes to the residence twice a week to help Brooks with his studies, whom Ford described as “wonderful.”
“All we can do is hope for the best, but the outlook right now is unknown,” she said. “It’s one day at a time.”
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