Christmas Miracle

Near tragic experiences are often the catalysts, for helping us have deeper appreciation for life and serve to make us stronger. No one knows this better than self described soul mates, Sheryl Goring and Len Klassen. December 2006 marked their first Christmas together.

We all know people like Cheryl, she began preparing weeks in advance, decorating the house with lights and ornaments, baking cookies and trimming the tree. After which she would declare, “This is the best Christmas tree ever!”

Several weeks before the Christmas holidays Cheryl bought Len a pair of Nike shoes, a present that would prove to have eventual ironic and even humorous overtones, but not before Len and Cheryl’s lives would take a near fatal turn. Anne Mullens of Reader’s digest relays the story.

On the morning of November 24th 2006, Len left his B.C. home en route to work in central Vancouver. It was dark and rainy, as he was heading for the Albion Ferry Terminal. About twenty five minutes into his commute, Len was coming to a curve in the road, near the Ferry terminal exit. Without warning, his truck and an oncoming car were on a collision course. At the last second, Len threw himself sideways across the truck bench seat in an effort to save himself.

Meanwhile Cheryl had learned from Len’s boss that he had not shown up for work. A flurry of anxious cell phone and text messaging activity got no response from Len and matters were made horrifyingly worse when Cheryl learned that a terrible accident had closed the Lougheed highway for hours. Cheryl found it progressively more difficult to breathe.

Finally, a social worker from the Royal Columbian hospital, the region’s trauma centre, called to say, “Come as quickly as you can.” The trauma team was preparing Len for surgery. The dive across his truck bench had spared his face, head and spinal chord from damage, but doctors were not sure if he would be able to survive the rest of his injuries. Only time would tell.


In the days that followed Len underwent six life saving surgeries and Cheryl signed page after page of consent forms. She was instructed to go see Len and whisper something in his ear. It was a round about way of telling her to say goodbye. To everyone’s surprise however, Sheryl, instead of whispering in Len’s ear, shouted at him: “You fight! Do you hear me? You fight and come back to me! I love you – fight!” Though he held precariously to life, Sheryl never gave up hope that Len would come home, then and only then would Christmas be celebrated.

In the four months that followed the accident Len endured seventeen surgeries. His stomach was swollen to such an extent that, surgeons could not close the wound from the accident for several weeks. To make matters worse Len’s left foot had been crushed in the accident. Doctors debated whether to amputate or not. One day they were optimistic, the next day they were afraid that infection would spread to the rest of his body. On December 11th however, Sheryl made the tough call. “Take it off!!” she declared, “I don’t love his foot, I love him, it’s no good having the foot if it’s stopping him from getting better.” “I’m doing what’s best for him and he will understand.”

Doctors anticipated that Len would be hospitalized for six to eight months, but by February of 2007, three months after the accident, he was healing so well that doctors began to talk about discharging him. One of Len’s doctors said, “You are the miracle man of 2006; I never thought you’d make it.”

True to her word Sheryl celebrated Christmas when Len arrived home on March 16th 2007.
A large lawn sign read, “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Welcome Home Len!” as twenty of their friends and family cheered. The first gift that Len accidentally received was a pair of Nike shoes that Sheryl had bought him several weeks before Christmas. Len looked at the shoes and then at his left leg, amputated at the foot. He then said to Sheryl, “I sure hope you got them fifty percent off.”

- Terry Harris

Diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy when he was two years old, Terry Harris in the opinion of many experts within the medical and education professions, would never walk, talk, read, write or go to a regular school. It was recommended to his parents that he beplaced in an institution. In 1995 Terry graduated from Brock University with a B.A. in English Literature and obtained a degree in marriage and family therapy in 1999 from Tyndale Seminary.