It has been eighteen years but Shirley Badke still remembers January 12, 1995 as if it were just last month.  It is an anniversary of sorts - but it isn't the wedding anniversary that she celebrates with her husband, Jeff, of 34 years.   It is the anniversary of the accident that changed her life.   That was the day a twin engine Cessna crashed into her Southland Timber office, engulfing Shirley with flames that covered 86% of her body with third degree burns. All four passengers died in the crash.  With the grace of God and wonderful medical care, Shirley survived and continues to amaze all who know her. 

 
Shirley, then 36-years-old, woke up four months later from a medically induced coma at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital, with Jeff, and their two children, Chris and Joe, by her side.  It would be the end of August, seven months later, before she was discharged from the Burn Center. 

With a strong will, family support, prayers, and the advancement of technology, Shirley not only survived, but today lives a vibrant and active life as a wife and mother.  Shirley was one of the first patients to receive cultured epidermal autografts (CEAs), technology developed in the early 1990's by Genzyme Corporation.  From two postage stamp-sized biopsies of Shirley's unburned skin, Genzyme "grew" enough skin to cover Shirley's body, a procedure that saved her life.

"Shirley is an inspiration to everyone.  She, more than anyone, has reason to feel sorry for herself, yet she doesn't, and people don't realize that," said Dr. Hermann Orlet, Shirley's physician.  Their close relationship didn't start out that way.  "I'm very independent.  I ran my house, my office and my children.  I woke up from the coma and realized that I was not in charge, he (Dr. Orlet) was and I didn't like him very much," laughs Shirley.  "But I grew to love him and Marianne (his wife), and they are like family to Jeff and me."   So much so, that in  2001 Shirley and her husband, Jeff, helped establish the Orlet Garden of Hope, a place where families of burn patients and other Burn Foundation visitors can enjoy solitude, prayer, or just experience the beauty of nature.

The silver lining in Shirley's tragedy is that her burn injury brought awareness of the Burn Center and Southeastern Firefighters Burn Foundation to the Augusta community.  Though Shirley's family did not need housing assistance from the Burn Foundation, they appreciated the spontaneous outpouring of help from many local families who brought meals to the Burn Center to feed not only Shirley's family, but other families as well.  Those spontaneous acts of caring were the beginning of the Burn Foundation's Meals Program.  Today over sixty churches and organizations work with us to assure that a hot meal is served to our guests 365 days a year.