One of Russ’ students gave him an orange bracelet for Kalkidan’s birthday that says, “FIGHT like a GIRL.”
Kalkidan was a fighter. First she fought out of fear. Later she fought for healing.
One of my few memories from the accident is Russ’ voice as he, and a nurse who stopped to help, did CPR on Kalkidan. Their voices, counting compressions, came to me in a moment of foggy consciousness. I heard Russ calling out to God, and then I heard him say, “Come on, Kalkidan, you’re a fighter. I need you to fight harder than you’ve ever fought before. I love you.”