In a moving first-person account, Diane McArdle reflects on the life-altering moment a decade ago when her adult son Steve Polakowski sustained a catastrophic spinal cord injury following a car accident, which left him a quadriplegic. She describes the raw emotional journey of navigating his intensive hospital care, rehabilitation, and the agonizing months when he resided in a skilled nursing facility, during which both of their lives were upended by his loss of independence. Out of this hardship emerged hope: Steve leveraged assistive-technologies (including eye-tracking and voice-activated systems) to reclaim his business and life, and in turn founded the nonprofit Adaptive Technologies to help others with disabilities access similar tools. Diane emphasizes that while the accident stole physical mobility, it could not conquer his spirit or their bond, and now they invite others to join in their mission of love, resilience and tech-enabled independence. Read “A Mother’s Journey.”