Borrowed time and answered prayers

BY COPELAND WELCH / Managing Editor

According to The Recovery Village, 70% of adults experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime. For Marlie Tucker, a Tarleton State University graduate of the class of 2024, this traumatic event occurred when she was 17. 

While Tucker’s classmates were gearing up to take their SATs, attend junior prom and start applying for colleges, she found herself in a very different reality. 

It was a typical day for Tucker. School had just let out and she was headed to her after-school job. She recalls suddenly deciding to turn around and drive back in the direction of her high school, for a reason she can’t remember.

This is when Tucker’s life took a complete turn. 

In a matter of seconds, she had been hit by a freight train on the passenger side of her car and pushed 450 yards. Tucker remained in a coma following the accident for 14 days. 

“There were definitely times when myself, my mom, my family included didn’t think I’d see today, so I was extremely discouraged like ‘Oh my gosh, how could this happen to me, I'm 17, I can’t even swallow a drink without putting thickener in it,’” Tucker said. “But also it’s like how lucky is it that I’m 17 and this gets to be my problem, like thank God I get to be able to have to do all of these things. So that was really hard to deal with for a while, just mentally. You know I should be grateful I get to live on all this borrowed time and answered prayer.” 

Tuckers describes the rehabilitation process as humbling at the least. 

“There are things I still struggle with today,” Tucker said. “When you have a traumatic brain injury, that doesn’t just go away… It affects my reaction time, my emotions and lets me get overstimulated sometimes.” 

Although the accident was a traumatic event for Tucker, she credits her optimistic attitude to the experience. 

“Driving myself to work, all of these things that were foreign concepts to me at 17 or even 18, they’re not something I have to do, they’re something I get to do, which is just awesome,” Tucker said. “It [the accident] has completely made me more grateful and I just feel so much gratitude and I love being present.”

Tucker often struggled with understanding the reason this accident happened to her. 

“Everyone kept on telling me everything happens for a reason, and I’m like ‘What was the reason for this?’ I can’t do anything,” Tucker said. 

Tucker has worked as a waitress at Grumps Burgers in Stephenville for three years while she was a student at Tarleton. She has developed relationships with the customers and the connections she has made have become one of the things she cherishes most from her time in Stephenville. 

“I have loved being at Tarleton and I think my favorite thing is just the community, aside from school, I love Stephenville,” Tucker said. “I’ve made so many good connections and working in Stephenville at Grumps and waiting tables I’ve met so many profound people that I can use as references and let me know about job opportunities, and I just met some great people that were just customers and they come in there and get burgers. Now I am getting invites to their kid’s high school graduations, so it’s just so cool to feel so involved in the community.”

Following graduation Tucker has aspirations of pursuing a career in community outreach and the nonprofit industry. After her accident she felt inspired to give back to the community that cared for her and her family so deeply. 

“I am here because of the power of prayer,” Tucker said. “It’s crazy how the community really just wrapped their arms around my brother and my mom and me in that time and that’s what motivates me so much to work in a nonprofit and community outreach. I think that’s kind of the reason all of that happened honestly. I keep on trying to think ‘Everything happens for a reason.’ And I think that is one of the biggest reasons. I am here to do something for my community who did so much for me and my mom and my brother.” 

Tucker is graduating with a Bachelor of Science in communications and a concentration in public relations and social engagement. 

“Making it this point, to graduating college as a first gen is just huge,” Tucker said. “There were times that we didn’t know if I was going to make it through the year.”

Tucker has battled with telling her story in the past, but she now views it as an opportunity to help inspire others and she realizes that being hit by a train happened for her, not to her, and it has allowed her to discover what she was called to do. 

“I want to be a voice of hope,” Tucker said. “I used to have such a negative connotation around telling my story because I was over it. I was over being the train girl, being the miracle girl. I didn’t remember how it happened, I didn’t have something inspirational to say, I just got hit by a train and I lived, that was it. But now it’s become my testimony and it’s been a mindset shift and I’ve been able to turn it into something so positive. We’re all living in borrowed time and answered prayer and we’re just walking each other home. It’s just been completely humbling and made me so grateful for this life. I just want to continue to share that message and work in the community and work in nonprofit and help where I can.”