Wedding replayed for injured parents

'I'm going to dance with my son'

On July 7, Terry and Crystal Pitts of Dixon will attend the re-enactment of their son's wedding - a celebration that a drunk driver took from them on Dec. 3, 2006, just south of Arlee.

It was just four days before Zachary Pitts was scheduled to marry Valissa Sneck, daughter of Donald and Becky Sneck of Kalispell, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Salt Lake City Temple.

"I was still in ICU on the day of the wedding," Crystal Pitts recalled.

Pitts, a heath and physical education teacher, was in her 26th year as coach of the Ronan-St. Ignatius track team.

Her husband recently had retired as a coach at Arlee High School to his dream of training quarter horses and running their ranch.

The couple was looking forward to Zachary's wedding and got regular updates from their younger son Zanen about his mission for the church in Colorado.

In the blink of an eye, everything changed.

The two were returning from watching Zachary play basketball in Dillon as a member of the University of Montana-Western basketball team. At 1 a.m., a car careened into their lane near Jocko Road, just in front of Buckeye Hardwoods.

"Terry was driving," she said.

Pitts had reclined her seat that early Sunday morning to rest. When she opened her eyes, it was the next Friday.

She learned later that the collision crunched the interior of their 2004 Chevy Impala into a space the size of her husband's waist. Rescuers had to use Jaws of Life to extract them.

Her husband had the top of his left leg broken above the knee and shattered below.

Pitts suffered a broken neck, 12 breaks on the left side of her rib cage, a punctured lung and damage to her sixth cervical nerve, leaving one eye unable to track.

"I have double vision," she said. "I was lucky I didn't sever my spinal cord," she said.

She admits that she and her husband continue to have their good days and bad days with pain as a constant companion. As coaches, they rely on a special phrase to pull each other out of the dumps.

"The new phrase around our house is 'Suck it up,'" she said with a laugh.

She returned to coaching this spring.

Neighbors took in their horses and cows during their recovery. The herds multiplied, adding 12 foals and 35 calves this spring.

"They're all back now. Everybody's home," she said. "The cows are out to summer pasture."

At 2 p.m. on July 7, the couple plugs in the last missing piece when they hold a special ring exchange ceremony followed by a reception at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ronan.

While Pitts was incapacitated in intensive care, her husband decided to give the go-ahead for the wedding to proceed without them.

She said that the family is excited about the special re-enactment ceremony.

"They're actually going to exchange vows and put rings back on each other," Pitts said. "I'm hoping it helps Terry and I have closure that they really are married."

Zachary graduates next year with a bachelor's degree in business administration while Valissa just graduated from Carroll College with a health and psychology degree.

Pitts invites all their family and friends to watch them exchange rings and enjoy the reception - where she plans to carry out a dream in spite of her injuries.

"I'm going to dance with my son," she said.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.