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Today's Featured Biography

 
Greg Edde

It was the best day. And it was the worst day. It was July 4th, 1978, and in an instant Greg Edde’s life at the age of 25 would be changed forever in the blink of an eye. Greg, having graduated from EGHS in 1971 would go on to a trade school for Electronics located in Arizona. He returned back to Sacramento to begin work at Pepsi as a Regional Distributor. Greg’s easy going, funny, friendly and excellent work ethic made him a successful Pepsi employee.

Not long after, he caught the eye of Cindy Miner, also an EGHS graduate, and after a whirlwind courtship they were married on July 16th, 1977. He and Cindy settled into their future that would be cut short just 12 days shy of their first wedding anniversary.

On July 4th, 1978, they traveled to his brother Don & wife Sandi’s (EGHS 1972) home along with Judy Gerjits (EGHS 1972) and Randy Penny. All enjoyed fun in the sun swimming and looking forward to attending the Cal Expo horse races & fireworks that evening. All 3 couples followed one another and traveled the back way down Franklin Blvd. At about 6:30 p.m. at the intersection of Twin Cities and Franklin, a 16 year old returning home from a church camp was traveling west as he approached the railroad tracks. The stop sign had been overgrown and was barely visible, along with the sun in his eyes. He barreled through the stop sign and broadsided Greg and Cindy traveling North. The impact was severe and Greg’s wife Cindy lost her life almost instantly at the scene. Greg was severely injured with his head suffering most of the impact and was transported to Methodist Hospital. The news was devastating to the family with the loss of Cindy, and extremely grim for Greg. The doctors paraphrased it with “if he makes it through the night.” A vigil was kept around the clock, and somehow Greg made it but was in a deep coma for 69 days.

From that first night and for many, many days ahead family and friends would line the hallways bringing food, offering prayers, friendship, a clean change of clothes. Miraculously, he emerged from the coma after 69 days. While he could hear and see, the brain injury was permanent, rendering him unable to speak or walk.

Greg was finally released from medical care and he would reside with his parents in Sloughhouse, Joe & Eleanor Edde.

Greg required a full time aide in addition to his parent’s tireless dedication to do all they could for their son’s altered life. They eventually relocated to the Fresno area near Greg’s older brother Larry, and his wife, Carol, and came full circle back to the Central Valley where Greg had spent some time growing up. He was surrounded by a large extended family of nieces, nephews, and eventually a new generation of family members.

To this day, Greg has very little memory of the accident, but did want to know at some point “was the accident my fault?” But it was never a pity party. Always the lady’s man, he would kiss the hands of his aides to thank them for caring for him. His hilarious belly laugh can literally light up an entire room. Oddly enough, his long term memory has been remarkably intact, as he is able to remember (and embellish) stories of his years growing up and school friends.

Greg has the ability and a blessing to live in the moment. He has always been accepting of the tremendous loss he suffered at a much too young age. He remains the generous, kind, funny man he was before the accident despite losing so very much.

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