GRAVETTE -- Many area walkers and runners were delighted about the return of the Gravette Day 5K to this year's Gravette Day festivities, and participants came from throughout the area. One surprising participant was quadruple amputee Susan Hazard, of Rogers, who was a first-time entrant.
In explaining her involvement, Hazard said her friend, Ruth Poemoceah, had entered the race. "She asked me, 'Do you want me to sign you up?' and I told her, 'Yes, go ahead.'"
Hazard has come a long way to be able to participate in this race. She moved to Gravette in 1988 and says she "just landed here" because she liked the area and the people she met here. She was living in a cabin on Strawberry Ridge Road when an intruder broke into her home on the evening of Oct. 3, 2017.
"He pushed his way in and grabbed me and I started praying immediately," she explained. "I said, 'Jesus, I want to live but, if I don't, I know I will be with you.' He asked me what I was doing and when I said I was praying he told me to shut up. I replied that he couldn't stop me from praying because I could continue to do so whether I did it verbally or not."
Hazard went on to recount how her attacker brutally beat and raped her for about five hours. "I don't mind telling about it because God is at the center of my story. He is with me and provided me peace even through this brutal attack." When he finally left, the man took her cell phone with him and it was later discovered outside in the trunk of her car.
She was retired at the time and volunteered five days a week at Care and Share in Gravette. When she didn't show up for work the next morning, one of the other volunteers called to check on her. She was able to answer on her home phone and told her caller to have someone come and take her to the hospital.
She was checked at the Gravette hospital and detectives came to interview her there but she was soon transferred to Mercy Hospital in Rogers because her injuries were so severe. She had her first surgery soon after arrival but says she doesn't remember it at all. "I was in a coma for three weeks," she explained.
The vicious rape ripped Hazard's colon and toxins from her colon leaked into her bloodstream. When these toxins entered her system, it caused her to develop sepsis and her arms and legs eventually died. This led to the amputation of both her legs just below the knee and both her arms just below the elbow.
Hazard was hospitalized for three months. "I had drainage tubes as well as a feeding tube directly into my stomach because I couldn't swallow for several weeks." After her stay at Mercy Hospital, she was a patient at Jamestown Rehab Hospital for 100 days. She went to Jamestown on Dec. 31 and was fitted for prosthetics for her legs.
"It was the middle of February when I took the first step on my new legs," she relates. "At first, I could only stand, then take just a few steps."
She continued doing exercises to develop her core strength and in April 2018 was fitted with prosthetics for her arms which enable her to eat and turn the pages when she reads.
Hazard spent some time in Health South Rehab in Fayetteville before moving to her present home at the House of Three in Rogers in May 2018. A CNA is on staff at the residence and has her own separate bedroom but is available to the home's three residents 24 hours a day. A physical therapist also came in and worked with Susan for eight weeks.
Today Hazard walks regularly for exercise. Her friend Ruth Poemoceah, wife of Dr. Marc Poemoceah, a physician on staff at Ozarks Community Hospital, drives over to walk with her at least one day each week. She appreciates Ruth and several other friends who walk with her often. They walk on the Razorback Greenway and Susan has walked as far as six miles.
Hazard says she looked forward to Gravette Day because "it's fun to see people, especially members of my church family." (She has been a member of Church on the Hill for close to 30 years.) She had participated in past Gravette Days by helping man a booth for Benton County Right to Life.
She has been a willing volunteer for service organizations in the past, including traveling with the International School Project, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. She has traveled with the group to countries in Central and South America and in Asia and says she appreciates the high standards they set for their volunteers.
A trial was held for Hazard's attacker in July 2018 and she testified twice. He had a history of alcohol abuse and was a meth user. She said he was tried on five counts and was given a life sentence on four counts plus 20 years on the fifth count.
"This young man, who was only in his early 30s, took away his own life because of stupid decisions," she says. She urges young people tempted to try alcohol and drugs to think first about the consequences. "It's hard to come out of situations that entrap you," she warns.
Hazard gives a wonderful testimony as she tells how she soon forgave her attacker.
"You read the four gospels and over and over Jesus tells his followers, 'You must forgive.' I could have held on to that resentment and anger but it would hurt me more than anyone else." She concluded by giving thanks to her God who is "always faithful," she said.
