Every family has their Thanksgiving Day tradition, and Aimee Copeland’s is no different.
For as long as she can remember, it has been the practice at her family’s dinner table to share those things for which they’re grateful – small or large.
Aimee Copeland is grateful for, among other things, her right knee and elbows.
“Elbows are awesome,” she laughed during a telephone interview last week.
Copeland, you may recall, was severely injured on May 1, 2012, when she fell from a homemade zip line over the Little Tallapoosa River in Carrollton and onto the rocks below. The rocks cut into her calf, and bacteria in the water began eating her flesh.
In exchange for her life, doctors amputated both of Copeland’s hands, her left leg and her right foot.
This year, though, Copeland said she is particularly thankful for a long list of firsts, starting with cooking her first turkey this Thanksgiving – a 14-pound organic beast. This will also be the first time she has hosted her family and friends, about 15 in all, in her own home with her new boyfriend, Stephen, new brother-in-law, Chad Etheredge, and a host of new friends she met this year through Tools for Life, Georgia’s Assistive Technology Act Program.
“There will be some other wheelchairs in the house so that will be cool,” she said.
Cool because the list of things and people for which Copeland is grateful is never ending.
Just being able to spend two days cooking for her family and friends is a blessing, she said, laughing, always laughing, because “that means you have a lot of food.”
“I’m thankful for having a roof over my head and living independently in Atlanta,” she continued. “For having an extremely rewarding job at the Shepherd Center,” which is a reminder that not everyone will get to be home for Thanksgiving because they will be in a hospital.
And then, finally, she added: “I think the number one thing I’m grateful for is this beautiful gift of life that we’ve been given.”
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