SUPERIOR -- A cruel irony will be at play at Michele O'Donnell's homecoming this weekend.
There will be balloons, fireworks and hundreds of friends, neighbors and well-wishers at her Alma Lane home in Superior on Saturday to welcome her back from a year of hospitals, rehab centers and five surgeries on her brain.
But the home where Michele has lived with her family for 11 years won't be hers for long.
The travails of having to keep the 42-year-old mother of four alive after she slipped and smashed her head in Mexico one year ago have resulted in months of missed work for her husband and piles of medical bills that have whittled away the family's savings.
Mortgage payments were missed, the house briefly fell into foreclosure last month, and now the place must be sold.
John O'Donnell, Michele's husband of 20 years, said the family will "downsize," rent a place nearby and work toward their long-term goal -- buying some property in Park County and building a modest home there.
"We'll live well below our means for the next couple of years until I can save up some money," John said. "I can rebuild, and I will. The two things I have to do most is take care of her and get back to work."
The stress of the O'Donnells' ordeal over the last 12 months was evident earlier this week. Tears welled in John's eyes as he stood on the upstairs landing of his Rock Creek house, where two showings were scheduled for later that day.
His recent handiwork -- a handicap-accessible shower and toilet stall that he constructed to make it possible for Michele to use the bathroom -- denoted a more auspicious time.
"When I had to pack up the very first box, I couldn't," said John, who owns an equipment financing business in Arvada.
But he refuses to let the accident pull him down.
Despite the troubles that have befallen his family since his wife slipped and struck her head on a wet bathroom floor at their vacation timeshare in Cancun on Jan. 27, 2010, John takes pleasure in the progress of Michele's recovery from near death.
"The good news is we got her, and all the rest doesn't matter," he said. "I got my girl back."
Michele, who left the Mapleton Rehabilitation Center in Boulder a week ago after a six-week stay, has gone from someone who was unresponsive and hooked up to an endless tangle of feeding and oxygen tubes to someone who smiles, laughs, jokes and teases her kids and husband.
"No way, dude," she said to John on Thursday, when he mentioned the impending move out of their home.
Like any mother might, she challenged her eldest son's plans to join the Navy, saying "maybe" when he talked about heading to boot camp.
"I remember the way she was on day one and halfway through it, and I'm so proud of her," said Billy O'Donnell, 18, who has regularly visited his mother at the seven hospitals and rehab facilities she has called home for a year. "It's a good feeling seeing her every day and night."
In the short time that has passed since the Camera profiled her story in late December, Michele has made remarkable strides forward.
She walks hundreds of feet at a time with a walker, converses in short sentences and phrases, and motions to her family members animatedly. She has lost the eye patch that served to counter her double vision, and her hair is slowly growing back to the shoulder length she desires.
Michele dresses herself, brushes her own hair and teeth and can make it up the stairs in her home with the help of a cane. Her cocktail of 15 medications has been reduced to just three.
"I do it all myself," Michele said, beaming from a chair in her family room. "Do it all -- I have to."
Her husband hopes she'll be able to return to her true passion -- cooking -- as soon as possible. She's already telling him where in the local Safeway he can find the ingredients for dinner, he said.
Amy McAlister marvels at the progress her sister makes each day.
"She says things she couldn't remember yesterday," said McAlister, before being overwhelmed by emotion and a stream of tears. "So many times along the way we thought, 'This is it.'"
Whether Michele truly recognizes that she will soon be leaving the home that she has always taken great pride in running isn't entirely clear. But she knows exactly -- without hesitation -- what she likes best about being back home.
"Him and my kids," Michele said, pointing to her husband and son. "That's what I want."
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