The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Innovation’s Ashley Palombizio optimistic following I-84 crash
NEW BRITAIN — As she sat there with her twin Katherine on their 18th birthday, Ashley Palombizio smiled at the memory of her return to CREC Academy of Science and Innovation.
“It was February 1st and I didn’t tell anyone I was coming back,” Ashley said. “Katherine was the only one who knew. All my friends were surprised. It was really cool seeing how happy they were they to see me. Yeah, I remember that day.”
Ashley Palombizio doesn’t remember her previous birthdays. There are triggers that will spark a memory of an event. Yet the truth is her life, as she knows it, essentially started when she awoke from a two-car crash on I-84 in Plainville on Oct. 29.
“The first thing I remember is constantly asking for my mom,” Ashley said.
Katherine, born one minute after Ashley and certainly her fraternal twin’s angel that early Friday night in October, was in the same wrecked car.
Eight members of the Innovation volleyball team were involved in the accident on I-84 in Plainville.
Ashley’s injuries were many and significant. Among them were traumatic brain injury, a broken left arm, a broken pelvis. The ICU stay, the recovery, the endless therapy, the journey to her 18th birthday on Friday is a long, remarkable one.
“Ashley had to learn to walk again,” her mom April said. “And talk.”
And feed herself ? “Everything,” April said. “When you sit back and look at it all, it’s pretty miraculous.”
At first, it was difficult for Ashley to accept the fact that this happened to her.
“I was basically living in someone else’s body,” she said. “I knew who everyone was. I just didn’t remember them — if that makes
sense. Seeing people I was supposed to love was hard because, at the time, I didn’t see why I loved them.”
There were great physical challenges, too. Here was a kid who had just been selected to 2021 CRAL allleague volleyball confined to a wheelchair. She couldn’t lift her arm. The headaches, the pain from the injuries. She was constantly fatigued.
“I’d wake up and two hours later I’d go back to sleep again,” Ashley said. “I had no energy. I didn’t even have the energy to take a shower. I’d have a conversation and I’d have to take a nap. I was drained.”
Everything was a challenge. She had her molars, cracked in the accident, removed and was up the entire night, because it made her headaches so bad.
“The gas used to knock me out made my TBI worse,” she said. “I was throwing up for hours.”
Ashley got out of the hospital the third week in November and met her goal of being home for Thanksgiving.
The physical therapy continued. The occupational therapy. The speech therapy. Therapy. Therapy. Therapy.
“The speech part was really hard,” Ashley said. “It took a few months before I started seeing improvement.
“It was around the end of January when I could start doing things with my legs and arms. I still felt it in my legs. My mom would teach me how to walk correctly. She made me look at my feet so I knew what I was doing.”
Ashley would use a crutch for a few months. Even after she stopped using it, walking was painful. Making it to the top of stairs was a significant victory.
Volleyball and softball, those are the twins’ love. That’s their sports. Mom played volleyball at Fairfield University. Katherine was a middle hitter and then an outside hitter. Ashley, Katherine said, was a particularly reliable setter.
“She was a really good fit for our team,” Katherine said.
The crash occurred after the end of the regular season and before the league championships and CREC athletic director Jonathan Winer said a decision was made to cancel the tournament. Ashley would receive her all-league award while in the ICU.
Katherine missed a big chunk of the volleyball season with foot surgery. Ashley had missed a big chunk of the softball season last year with an injury.
“So I really wanted her to play softball this year because it’s our last sport (we) will play together fully,” Katherine said. “That part is disappointing.”
The uplifting part, as April says, is they have each other.
Confidential stuff, nonconfidential stuff, it is remarkable when you think about it. A twin to fill in the blanks of the past and be there in the present and future.
“I treat her the same as I used to,” said Katherine, who’ll attend UConn in the fall and plans to major in pharmacy. “I will bring up stuff, like when memories come up on my phone (via social media). Two years ago this happened, and I show her.”
It is at that point April shares this.
“Katherine is really the reason Ashley is still alive,” she said.
They were in the wrecked car a significant time before emergency arrived and Ashley was able to be removed. Even though Ashley kept passing out, Katherine kept waking up, talking to her, giving words of support, holding her, doing whatever she could to keep Ashley alive.
“It’s beautiful story,” April said.
Katherine, stoic, watchful on this day, smiled.
“Even though Ashley has gone through this, she has brought so much to our lives because of it,” April said. “She has been an amazing trooper. So perseverant. She’s a role model. Whenever you have a bad day, you look at what she has been through, plugging through it. She is making the best of it. She makes me proud every day. They both do.
“Their relationship, who they are and what they’re becoming. It’s their 18th birthday. You love every moment and then you’re sad when it’s gone. I think all parents think that. You wish you could hold on to all of it and it goes by too quickly.”
In an essay for the Vistra Citizen-Athlete, Ashley wrote how she believed she had demonstrated CREC pride and perseverance.
“How I had to learn about myself all over again every single day,” she wrote. “It was wiped out. I don’t know anything about myself. I know what people tell me.”
She won the scholarship. Ashley will attend Boston University in January. Part of that, April said, is happenstance. BU has a program where students start second semester and continue in the summer as a completion of the freshman year. There is study abroad and Ashley will go to London. This also will give time for Ashley to continue her medical improvements at home.
Winer is completing details for Ashley to be a middle school volleyball coach next fall.
“CREC has been amazing since the get-go,” April said. “(Principal Karen Mooney) reaching out to me, being so supportive and amazing. (Counselor Elizabeth Woods) has been phenomenal, above and beyond. Things change so quickly with Ashley, she makes it exciting, always wanting to do more, and you constantly have to readjust in a school setting.
“We moved from shoreline to send kids to the CREC system. I didn’t want my kids sheltered and I wanted them to be exposed to more of what the real world looked like. I have more family up here and that worked out well. The girls went to a CREC Montessori Magnet school with kids from a number of countries. CREC was exactly what I wanted.”
Walking pain-free came for Ashley two months ago. Ashley began running two weeks ago. Memories come more slowly.
“They’re working with her on those things,” April said. “Kind of retraining and reeducating.”
“If it does come back, it’s minimal,” Ashley said. “What I have right now isn’t a lot. It’s basically events. It’s not what is important to me. The people are. I couldn’t care less about the events.”
There was softball Senior Night on Wednesday before a game against Weaver. There was a little clinic for the New Britain Little League beforehand. Katherine and Ashley, who has served as a manager, were among the recognized.
And wouldn’t you know it? Katherine hit a grand slam to tie it late and Innovation ended up winning 17-16. A memorable night for the twins.
“This whole thing has made me stronger and will continue to make me stronger,” Ashley said. “I will grow from this. People think this is depressing and sad. To me it’s not. It’s making me a better person. People shouldn’t look at me and pity me for it. They should see how strong I am because of it.”
Katherine, stoic, watchful on this 18th birthday, nodded and smiled.