Belton woman turns tragedy into triumph; hopes to inspire others
BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
BELTON – Lynette Connell
Jones enjoys horseback riding, singing, skating, skiing, scuba diving, big game hunting, fishing, public speaking, and whatever else she can talk her husband into — and she does all these things in spite of a devastating car crash nearly 26 years ago that left her per manently paralyzed from the chest down. It was the first day of Oct. 1999 and the for mer Killeen and Harker Heights resident was working in marketing for several radio stations in Waco when tragedy struck.
“I had dropped my son off at daycare and had gone into the office,” she said. “The thought on the calendar that day was, ‘Don’t let the need for perfection paralyze you.’ I always thought I needed to be perfect. Now, my (first) marriage had failed (and) I was taking a new job where I had a lot to learn. I was a single parent, my parents had died.
“Basically, I was just trying to find myself, and at 2:20 p.m., I was headed to an event for the radio station and I reached down to my right to pick up the directions – I didn’t know Waco at all – and my front tires went off the road on Highway 6. I turned the steering wheel with my left hand and it over-corrected and rolled six times, and I broke my neck.
“I was in a brand new, white,
’99, four-wheel drive (Chevrolet) Suburban and it was completely crushed. I remember hearing the crunching of the metal and all I knew to do was sing, ‘Jesus Loves Me.’ Between hearing the metal crushing and being thrown from the vehicle … I don’t have any memory of that, but however I was thrown out – with my seatbelt on – saved my life.”
Lynette was 32 years old then. She moved with her family to Killeen from their hometown Harlingen in South Texas in 1982. She finished her junior and senior years at Killeen High School and graduated in 1984. She had developed a passion for music and went on to study vocal perfor mance for four years at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos (now Texas State University), then got married and moved back to Killeen. She worked 10 years in marketing for KOOV radio station in Copperas Cove, taught voice lessons, and perfor med in community theater musicals at what was then called Vive Les Arts theater. Then came the move to Waco and everything changed.
“My parents were older and they both got sick and I had my son, Kyle – he was bor n in ’95 –and then they both passed away, and due to all the circumstances that had gone on, my husband and I ended up divorcing and Kyle and I moved to Waco in August of ‘99,” Lynette said.
“When I had the wreck, they (emergency responders) came to me, and I knew phone numbers (and) addresses. I was coherent, and then everything went dark and both my lungs collapsed.
“I don’t remember but I guess they told my family that afternoon that I would be paralyzed from the chest down and may not be able to move my arms or
anything. They did the surgery and I was in a halo and had a feeding tube and breathing tube for quite some time.”
Somewhat surprisingly, throughout her hospital stay and subsequent four months of rehab at TIRR in Houston, Lynette never felt sorry for herself and never once felt despair over her condition.
“I can’t explain this (but) I always had hope,” she said. “I always somehow knew all of this was happening for a reason. I had fear that without the use of my hands (and) and legs, how I would care for my son. How
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Lynette Jones learned to snow ski despite being paralyzed from the chest down following a tra c accident in Waco.
German native found her purpose a er moving to Central Texas
BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
Brigitte Gregory was happily working as a pharmacy tech in Offenbach, Germany, near Frankfurt after she graduated high school in 1976 and had no plans to come to the United States. Then, she met and married a U.S. Army soldier, moved to Central Texas, and unexpectedly found not only a new career but a renewed sense of purpose.
“When I came over here in ’94, I worked at a pharmacy for about seven years,” Gregory said. “One of the pharmacists, his wife was a yoga teacher, and she brought me into yoga once a week on Wednesday night at the old community center on W.S. Young.
“Attending those classes for a whole year, I saw the transformation of the workout, so I went through yoga teacher training, quit my job and started to teach. That was in 2001.”
Since then, Brigitte has been teaching yoga and also tai chi, an ancient Chinese exercise involving various movements and positions, meditation, and deep breathing, and is designed to improve such things as balance, mobility and coordination. She explains:
“The tai chi is a walking meditation. You learn the movements, which is good for the memory The movements go to the right and to the left, so both sides of the brain are involved. After learning the movements, the
body flows and your mind can relax completely. So whatever is going on in your life – if it’s good; if it’s pleasant; if it’s not so good – you are in the flow and nothing else can bother you. You completely relax your mind.
“What yoga does for you is it brings you pure awareness to yourself. It gives you an hour to decompress and de-stress. It’s just you and the mat. That harmony which you create between your mind and your body ... nothing can replace that. You cannot go into the store and buy it off the shelf.
“They’re a little different, but that is the beauty of both.”
Her classes are taught in conjunction with AdventHealth Central Texas in Killeen and are free and open to the public. For a long time, she taught yoga three times a week and tai chi once a week. Then, the COVID pandemic arrived and the in-person classes were discontinued. Gregory was determined to find a way and so she learned to use the Zoom on-line video platform and began teaching her classes remotely
“When the pandemic started, I was teaching classes in person at the hospital,” she said. “I did yoga on Friday mornings and tai chi on Wednesday mornings, but then everything closed down.
“Then, I started teaching with Zoom three times a week, and we are in our fifth year doing those classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday morn-
ings. I also started teaching tai chi in person again on Tuesday nights, 5:30 to 6:30.
“I specialize myself for seniors, because when you reach a certain age bracket, working out is history. You have no place to go; you don’t want to be embarrassed (going to a gym or health club). And those are the people who need help the most. My tai chi teacher and I have been together over 20 years. We made so many classes together, it’s unreal. It’s a very great relationship that we have. She moved to Cedar Park and she is 95 years old, and she attends my Zoom classes three times a week. She is amazing.”
Brigitte says she has never personally experienced anything like gender discrimination, either in Germany or in the United States, but she believes it is important to remember and recognize the accomplishments women have made over the years. For her, helping other women learn to take better care of their emotional and physical health is what she describes as “my mission in life.”
“When I think back about working in the pharmacy, I also worked in the durable medical equipment section,” she said. “Helping people when they come in the store – they need a brace; they needed support stockings – it was very satisfying and rewarding to help them get better
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Brigitte Gregory was a pharmacy tech when she moved to Central Texas from Germany in 1994. Now she teaches yoga and tai chi classes at AdventHealth and on-line
Harker Heights nurse says career inspired by late grandmother
BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
HARKER HEIGHTS – California native Tiandra Arrington had aspirations to study medicine and become a doctor, but that all changed when her beloved grandmother got sick.
“I originally wanted to be a pediatrician,” said Arrington, who grew up in San Diego and now lives in Harker Heights. “That was my plan. In high school, I was in this program called Upward Bound. We got to go stay at the college campus during summers and take courses to help us graduate early
“Then, my senior year in high school, my grandma got sick with breast cancer, and so I had the opportunity to be able to take care of her. That gave me the motivation to want to go down the nursing pathway instead of being a pediatrician.”
Tiandra graduated high school in San Diego in 2001. She earned her CNA credentials (certified nursing assistant)
first, then became an LVN, and finally an RN in 2023. She works now at the Baylor Scott and White Cancer Center in Killeen, and also as an emergency room nurse in Round Rock. She moved to Central Texas in 2007, a year after her grandmother came here from California to be closer to family
“She had been in remission for five years, and then they found more cancer,” Tiandra said. “So I picked up and came
here with my two children at the time because I wanted to be with her. All of our family is from Texas and she wanted to be close to everybody, so her retirement was here in Texas.”
Tiandra has been married to her husband, Mark, for five years now, and they share nine children, but no grandchildren “yet.” They are heavily involved with youth sports in Harker
Heights and enjoy participating in church events and doing a little traveling when their busy schedules allow. Mark is also a talented artist responsible for a number of murals in downtown
Killeen, and Tiandra enjoys working out and taking Zumba classes
When she thinks of Women’s History Month, Tiandra says she has never been personally affected by gender discrimination, but it is important for her to remember that some have struggled and paved the way for others to follow their dreams
“When I think of women’s history, I think of all the crossroads that women have had to conquer, especially competing with men,” she said. “So what does that mean for me? It means just continuing to set the stage to let it be known that we’re human – just like men are human – and we have crossroads that we have to go through, but we can still get through them
“Nothing is impossible for us.”
She has worked at the Cancer Center in Killeen for about six months now and says the work is rewarding, but also difficult at times, helping care for people who are seriously ill. Being there also reminds her of her late grandma, who received treatment at the facility next door to AdventHealth hospital. For those struggling with a serious illness like cancer, Tiandra says this:
“Take it one day at a time. That’s it. One day at a time; one step at a time,” she said. “We’re just putting one foot in front of the other and walking forward, little bit by little bit.
Tiandra Arrington and husband, Mark, are the proud parents of nine children. Both are heavily involved in youth sports programs in Harker Heights.
TRIUMPH
would I get joint custody back when I couldn’t do anything? That was the main goal.
“I was in rehab for four months and slowly I would start doing things with my son – with a lot of help from others. I had an incredible surgeon who did a tendon transfer from different parts of my arm into my right hand to give me a little bit of grip. The left hand doesn’t do anything, but I can do things with the right hand. I can move both of my arms now and having use of your ar ms and at least one hand is very, very helpful.
“I learned to drive. I was in the PTA – PTO – and I took him to skating parties and I’d get out on the floor in my wheelchair and skate. My son and I have been to Belize and Honduras scuba diving together – yes, I have pictures! We went snow skiing. I’ve always had a love for hunting, and my son is an avid hunter. Before the accident, I went on several hunts and after the accident.”
Along with those things, Lynette was doing motivational speaking engagements, and that led to a meeting with Terry Jones, who had lost his wife to breast cancer and was managing Christian Courage, a ministry “dedicated to inspiring others through stories.” It was not a love-at-first-sight encounter, but turned into a love story that has lasted nearly 12 years now
“His wife had breast cancer for 14 years and she passed away. He said he woke up one morning and realized, she was Christian Courage, because she did everything she could, every day, to be everything that she could. She was such a light to others,” Lynette said.
“So I was already speaking – motivational speaking – about my accident and all, and he had this ministry, and when I
met him and asked him what he did, he told me about it and we started speaking together. I would (also) sing at different events, and I think it was about a year later, he said, ‘There is just something about you ... would you like to go out on a date?’
“I said, ‘You better believe it.’”
After she and Terry got married, a second round of serious adventure began
“We travel all over,” Lynette said. “We hunt, we fish, we love to go to the mountains. He has gotten me in places I never thought I’d be. He gets me on the tube behind the boat; we go horseback riding. I found a saddle that velcros around my waist to hold me up.
“He’ll strap my wheelchair to the ATV and we’ll go up and down mountains. He has been such an incredible light to my life. Someone that comes in with a quadriplegic and takes it on … anything
I say that I’d like to try to do. We drew a tag for an elk in New Mexico, and he had to get me in and out of vehicles and up and down mountains. It’s just incredible what he’s been willing to do
“My life verse is Philippians 4:13: ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me.’ With him, I do anything I put my mind to. He just recently got me a hunt to Wyoming for a mule deer. He signs me up and we get drawn, and it’s just amazing. We’re in the second phase of trying to get this Africa hunt. That’s going to be amazing.
“We just enjoy life to the fullest … and believe me, there are health issues that I cannot even begin to go into, and we just try to fit those in between all of it. We just say, OK, we’ve got to take this month off and figure out what’s going on.”
For anyone else going through difficult circumstances, Lynette, who shares three children and two grandchildren with Terry, says this:
“Everybody has dark days, and you can give yourself that moment – you have to allow yourself that – but you also have
to stop and realize, ‘Oh, my gosh, I am blessed (and) I’m going to do everything I can for as long as I can.’
“We don’t know how long we have on this Earth, and you have to take those moments and say, ‘I’m going to make a difference. I’m not going to sit in this gloom and doom; I’m going to do something to help others.’
“That’s my mission now. Showing others that there is more out there. Something my husband taught me is, you never get today back. You never get today back, and you have to live each moment to the very fullest.”
Jones and her son, Kyle, have enjoyed scuba diving, skiing, hunting, and other adventures since her accident.
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Lynette
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Lynette Jones and son, Kyle, enjoy scuba diving together.
PURPOSE
and to a place they were before in their health.
“That’s why I do what I do now – helping, helping, helping. With the yoga and the tai chi, it’s all about taking care of everybody who comes to class. It’s a great way to improve your health. Some do it for spiritual reasons and some do it for stress relief, but it’s an excellent opportunity to think about your health and improve your health.
“I want to be sure and thank AdventHealth for having the classes and having them open to the public.”
For more information on the yoga and tai chi classes, contact AdventHealth hospital.
“That’s why I do what I do now – helping, helping, helping.”
- Brigitte Gregory
NURSE
FROM PAGE 3
“It’s a matter of what you want to do Do you want to fight for it, or do you want to just let it go? A lot of people – even though they’re scared and nervous because they have all these things going on – I remind them the reason why they’re here is because they want to fight
for it, right? I came to treatment – cool. I showed up for my labs and they’re not looking good. What do I do now? One step at a time.
“Your fight has got to be more powerful than that little (negative) person on your shoulder, talking in your ear. And the fight is one step at a time.”
Looking back at her decision to become a nurse instead of a doctor, Tiandra says she is completely happy with the path she decided to take, and she is not through
yet. Plans are underway to continue climbing the ladder in the medical field.
“I reflect back on it all the time, and I’m happy with the decision that I made. I love what I do,” she said. “I love it (and) I’m glad I did it. I know my grandma is proud of me, especially knowing that I’m working at the cancer clinic where she was treated.
“The route I have taken has definitely been hard. Some days more than others, but it’s been a joy because I’m doing
what I love to do. I love what I do and all the patients that I meet, whether it’s at the cancer clinic or the emergency room. Physically, the ER is tougher, but mentally, the cancer clinic is more difficult because you get to know your patients and what they’re going through and all of that.
“I’ve been very blessed in all the areas in my life. Right now, I’m planning to go back to school because I want to be a nurse practitioner. I still have a lot to do I’m not through yet.”
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Brigitte ,top center frame, teaches an online yoga class via the Zoom video platform.
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The women of the city of Killeen Public Works Department
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The women of the City of Killeen Public Works Department
The Harker Heights Police Department celebrated
The Harker Heights Police Department celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8
Belton military woman makes service a family affair
BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
BELTON – Serving in the military was a family affair for former soldier turned author Sarah Doran, whose father, two brothers, and husband also raised their right hand, swore the oath to support and defend, and wore a uniform.
Not only that, four of those five were deployed for combat duty in the Middle East at the same time. Not only that, they were able to take a break from their various wartime missions and coordinate the occasional face-to-face visit.
“My husband and I were in the same unit,” said Doran, a Belton
resident and former corporal who served 2007-13 in the U.S. Army. “We were stationed at Taji, Iraq, and then Shindand, Afghanistan.
“My dad, being a chaplain, traveled to different units and things, and so typically if he were traveling through Iraq or Afghanistan, in the general vicinity of where we were, he would try to stop in and say hello. Rank has its privileges, so that was really cool.
“My little brother was stationed in Baghdad, Iraq, and so our units allowed us to see each other for about 24 hours during our deployment, which was incredibly special.”
Sarah was born in San Anto-
nio, Texas, about 145 miles south of Killeen-Fort Cavazos. She grew up in a family of four children headed by her father, David, a retired colonel who finished a 30-year career in 2014. The family moved around quite a bit as she grew up, and she graduated high school in 2004 in Lansing, Kansas, near Fort Leavenworth.
Unlike her brothers, she had no desire to join the service Instead, she enrolled in college but eventuallydecided to become a part of the family tradition.
“I had no intention of joining the military. I didn’t think I was tough enough for it,” Sarah said. “I intended to go to school, and I did for a time. I went to Oral Roberts University for a year, and then I took off for either a year or a semester – I can’t remember – because my folks were stationed in Italy, so I spent some time with them there, and then I went to school for about a year at Texas State (University) in San Marcos, Texas
“They came back to Fort Bragg (Liberty), so after my year at Texas State, I went to stay with them. I guess it was about a year before I made the decision to enlist.
“Having grown up a military kid, one of the things a military kid experiences is, if they are a college student, they are under their parents’ umbrella as a dependent. When you stop going to college and you reach a certain age, you’re no longer allowed to keep that (military) I.D. card.
“I kind of felt like my home was being ripped away from me, because all I ever knew was being on post. I said, ‘Well, I’ve got to make a decision.’ The military was important to me and I wanted a chance to be able to do something with my life and make a difference. Serving my country felt like a good way to go, so that’s what I did.
“I celebrated my 22nd birthday at basic training.”
That birthday celebration was at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, followed by AIT at Fort Eustis, Virginia, where she trained as a Black Hawk helicopter mechanic, then headed to Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos), where PLEASE SEE FAMILY, 12
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Sarah Doran served in the U.S. Army as a Black Hawk helicopter mechanic from 2007-13
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Sarah Doran is now an author specializing in children’s books based on her experiences growing up in a military family
FAMILY
she spent the remainder of her enlistment, and also met her future husband.
“I actually met him the first day I showed up at Fort Hood (Cavazos),” Sarah said. “In the aviation spectrum – especially with mechanics – there aren’t very many female soldiers, so it trickled through the grapevine quickly that there was a new girl in town, and he decided to go check out the new girl.
“He came upstairs where I was doing paperwork, and he kind of blew me away because he said my maiden name correctly. It is spelled Beauchamp, but it is pronounced ‘Beach-em.’ I found out later that he had read a book that had that last name and a pronunciation guide for it, and he remembered that.
“I was, like, ‘Well, you made a good impression.’
“I was dating a different service member at the time, so he played the friend card and stuck around until that other relationship ended, and the rest is history.”
Married now for 14 years, Sarah and James – a former E-4 who also served six years – decided to leave the military after their initial enlistment. But first, they both were assigned twice to overseas combat duty, first in Iraq and then in Afghanistan.
Sarah explains: “We were in different companies but the same battalion (and) the first deployment was 2009-10, and that was to Taji, Iraq. The second
time we deployed – 2011-12 – was in Shindand, Afghanistan.
“In Taji, we were dating. I was a crew chief and so was my husband, and so we had different shifts and things, so we saw each other when we could. We did a lot of talking, and we had to get creative as far as how to communicate. There was some letter writing, especially if we were doing multiple shifts without seeing each other. Our companies were close to the same spot, and so he would get to work and I’d be leaving or whatever, and we’d get to see each other briefly.
“When we were in Afghanistan, it was a bit more challenging because he was put on a medevac unit, which was on a different base. We were married by that time, but they didn’t have married quarters. They had 16-man tents (with) women in a tent and men in a tent. That was also challenging, as a newlywed.
“We didn’t have phones so we would use the phones at the office to try to call the other office, to see if he was on shift. It was complicated, but we also used things like email.
“Any time we got incoming attacks, there was that moment of, ‘Is he safe?’ Or you would hear about a helicopter going down. There were definitely those unknowns, so we were pretty motivated to touch base with each other, to make sure things were OK. I think overall, though, it was pretty routine. We were part of combat units, obviously, because we would transport infantrymen and Marines and others who were going into combat. But we were fortunate enough to not experience anything too
crazy or scary.”
As they approached the end of their enlistment, Sarah and James were expecting their first child and so they decided to retur n to civilian life. They headed out to Oregon, where James’ family lived, stayed there for a while, then moved to Kansas City for a couple years, and then returned to Central Texas in 2017.
James works on the military installation, while Sarah homeschools the kids and writes children’s books. She has one book published, another due out soon, and one more on the way. All are inspired by her own experiences growing up in a military family
“It’s going pretty well,” she said. “When I sat down and started writing children’s books, I didn’t realize that it was going to become a small business for me. I would much rather just write, but publishing and distributing and marketing the books has been a huge learning curve. I’m grateful for my background in business and elementary education. Those things have been incredibly beneficial.
“I know that I have a lot of room to grow as a professional, but I’m really excited about getting my second book out there and continuing to make my stories available to families, hopefully around the world.”
Her first book, “The Peppered Sky,” was published in March 2023 and “celebrates military family life with (characters) Haleigh and Mason as they adventure into a world of airborne drop zones, military airplanes and U.S. paratroopers.” The idea
during a deployment to Afghanistan. behind this and future books is to help military children and other family members – along with interested civilians – better understand their lot in life which for some can be a non-stop series of adjustments and transitions.
“Military and civilian kids both go through major life changes – death, a birth, a move, things like that – but military kids (often) go through multiple major life changes in a short amount of time, and it’s not that they volunteered to do that (but) their parent did,” Sarah said. “So these kids are put into situations that are not necessarily comfortable, but you learn to adapt and overcome. They’ve learned resiliency as children, and they grow up to be resilient adults. So even though they are faced with these extra challenges, I think that they can come out stronger and more mature and more aware of the world around them than civilian kids who are not necessarily given that opportunity.
“I write from the perspective
of a military kid, based off of my memories as a military child and watching my dad and his airborne training jumps. I approach my books as not only for military families, but also for civilians who are curious about the military lifestyle. So I include extra educational-type resources and activities in the back of each book, such as how do paratroopers help to keep us safe. There’s another question in there about what it means by the cost of freedom. I include critical thinking questions for kids and teachers and parents. Then there are some journal prompts, as well.
“I recognized that there is a huge under-representation of military kids and families in literature, and I wanted to do something about that.”
Looking back over the years, Sarah says the military has always played a starring role in her life story, whether it was growing up as a dependent, joining the Army, or marrying a soldier. In short, for her, the military has been “foundational.”
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Sarah and her husband, James, and her father, David, are shown here together