ABC57 News in South Bend, Ind. covers all of Michiana including St. Joseph, Elkhart, Kosciusko, LaPorte and Marshall counties in Indiana and Berrien, Cass, Van Buren and St. Joseph counties in Mich.
Just over a year after her graduation from Rome Free Academy, Cherie Mellen Chabot’s life changed forever Oct. 9, 1983. She was just 19 years old.
Chabot was in an accident on Route 26 in West Branch, NY. She failed to navigate a curve – she saw no signs warning her it was coming – and went over an embankment, landing in a stone drive after being ejected from her car.
Her spinal cord was severed and she had other injuries as well. Chabot was paralyzed, likely never to walk again. But she continued to work after rehabilitation, married her husband Mark Chabot in September 1987 and had daughter Rhilea in July 1999. The couple now live in Canastota.