Post-accident blog creates community

Woman’s daily record about spouse’s recovery draws in thousands

By Jim Redden

The Portland Tribune, Aug 7, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (4 Reader comments)

L.E. BASKOW / Portland Tribune

Anna-Carin Davidson began writing a blog to keep family and friends updated about her husband, Eric, who was riding his bike and was severely injured when a drunken driver hit him. Three months later, the blog now is a must-read for thousands of strangers as well.

Anna-Carin Davidson was not looking for attention when she started an online diary in the aftermath of the horrific accident that nearly killed her husband, Eric.

Instead, after fielding dozens of phone calls from friends and relatives in the first frantic days after the accident, she was simply looking for an easy way to keep them up to date.

“I don’t talk so much,” the 34-year-old Anna-Carin said, explaining why she started blogging about her husband’s medical condition. “I’m a very quiet person.”

But in the three months since an alleged drunken driver smashed into Eric while he was bicycling home, the blog has turned into a must-read by thousands of strangers.

They are drawn by her honest portrayal of lives turned upside-down in a split second, and by her patient commitment to helping her husband become the active, outgoing person he once was.

A fundraiser is planned Sunday to help pay Eric Davidson’s medical expenses. It is organized by residents and business in the neighborhood where Davidson was hit by an alleged drunk driver while riding his bicycle home.

Proceeds from the fundraiser will be donated to the account maintained for Davidson at all Washington Mutual bank branches.

Along the way, the blog also has become a lifeline to the real world for Anna-Carin, who spends almost all of her other time at the hospital with her 37-year-old husband or dealing with their mounting financial issues.

“It does help me to know there are a lot of people out there who support us,” she said. “I love telling them what’s going on and getting answers back. It’s pretty cool.”

On her blog — aceanderic .wordpress.com — Anna-Carin is ACE, her longtime nickname made up of the initials from her Swedish maiden name, Eriksson. Writing in clear and simple terms, she is documenting the day-to-day progress her husband is making recovering from the accident that severely injured his head, spine, right knee, lungs and kidney.

Eric already has undergone numerous operations. Although he regained consciousness after weeks in the intensive care and trauma units of Legacy Emanuel Hospital, he cannot yet speak and faces months — if not years — of rehabilitation.

Couple faces many obstacles

Ironically, Anna-Carin resigned from her job as an advertising project manager shortly before the accident, meaning the couple has no income. Although she has opened an account for donations at Washington Mutual, bills are mounting and creditors are beginning to call.

Anna-Carin is not panicking, though.

“Thank God I’m a project manager,” she said. “I look at this as a huge project, and I’m managing it.”

In person, Anna-Carin does not betray any of the emotional turmoil she must be feeling. Seated over coffee at a Northeast Portland cafe not far from her house, she is poised and self-contained. She answers questions politely and even smiles occasionally.

“I truly believe Eric will be back, maybe changed a little but I understand that’s normal,” she said.

A few minutes later, however, Anna-Carin admits she still is in denial about the challenges — both physical and emotional — that lie ahead.

“The other day one doctor said to me, ‘You’re in for a long ride. Do you realize how long this is going to take?’ And I said, ‘No.’ But it’s beginning to sink in,” she said.

Driver had tried to steal beer

As Anna-Carin explains on her blog, the hours leading up to the accident were filled with fun. She and Eric went over to a friend’s house for a barbecue dinner on the evening of May 9.

“We enjoyed the nice spring evening,” she wrote on her first blog entry, posted on May 13. “Eric takes every moment he can to wear shorts, T-shirts and sandals which is exactly what he was wearing this evening.”

After dinner the couple stopped by a neighborhood pub on the way home.

“Eric was in a great mood and didn’t want to go home … surprise, right?” she wrote. “I left and Eric stayed, and that was the last time I saw him before the accident.”

According to court records, the accident occurred around 2:44 a.m. May 10. Eric was riding his bicycle west on Northeast Fremont Street past the Safeway store at 69th Avenue when a car sped out of the parking lot and struck him. The force of the accident ripped the bike in half, bouncing Eric off the car’s windshield and onto the street.

Police say the car was driven by Jerimiah Jordan, 31. Court records say that approximately 20 minutes before the accident, he tried to buy a case of beer at the store. When the clerk refused to sell it to him because he appeared drunk, Jordan tried to run out of the store with it. He scuffled with store employees, dropped the beer and escaped out the door.

About 10 minutes later, Jordan returned to his car, which was in the store parking lot. Court records say that after running into Eric, he fled home without stopping. Police were able to identify him quickly, however, because the car’s license plate was torn off in the collision and left in the street.

Jordan was arrested at his home a few hours later. A Multnomah County grand jury charged him with two counts of robbery in the third degree; one count of assault in the second degree; one count of misdemeanor driving under the influence of intoxicants; one count of recklessly endangering another person; one count of reckless driving; and two counts of failure to perform duties of a driver to injured persons.

Jordan was released on bail May 30. His trial is set for Sept. 23.

Anna-Carin declined to discuss the circumstances of the accident on the advice of the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.

“You can guess how I feel about the driver” is all she would say.

Plans are thrown awry

The accident happened at a critical juncture in the Davidsons’ lives. After seven years in Portland, they had decided to sell their home and move to Sweden.

As Anna-Carin explains it, both she and Eric had tired of their high-pressure jobs. She was working for Nemo Design, a Portland advertising agency. He owned Mercury Mortgage, a small financial firm.

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