Many things in life can cause a change. For one New Iberia woman, the changes came from a near-death experience.

Gabrielle Hebert, Gail as she is known to family and friends, was one of the vendors at the Farmer’s Market in Bouligny Plaza on a Saturday morning in July 2004 when a 79-year-old woman lost control of her vehicle and struck Hebert. Sheriff Sid Hebert, when contacted after the accident, said the driver told deputies she mistakenly pressed her accelerator instead of her brakes. She hit Hebert and three vehicles.

Hebert was struck as she sat in the back of her pickup truck while working her booth at the Farmer’s Market. Both of her legs were badly broken when she was struck by the automobile.

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Hebert said she did not realize the extent of her injuries.

“I thought I would go to the hospital and they would fix my broken bones, then I could go home,” Hebert said.

Instead, she spent a week in the intensive care unit and would spend another month in the hospital. She was given 28 pints of blood before the medication got her blood to coagulate. Hebert said she had to lay flat on her back and could only change positions with help.

“I thought to myself, ‘I want to live, even if they have to cut off my legs.’ After my condition started to improve, I realized that I would live and that I had to make the best of what has happened,” said Hebert. “They say God does not give you more than you can handle.”

Hebert needed a titanium rod put in place of the bone in her upper right leg. Another surgery was needed to graft a piece of bone taken from her hip to the rod. This surgery was a success, and the bone grew over the rod.

Before the accident, Hebert led a busy life. She is married to Herbert Hebert and has four children and nine grandchildren.

The family owns a licensed nursery called Gabrielle Acres. Hebert also grows fresh herbs and vegetables in her backyard garden. She also teaches piano lessons, scheduling some students around her physical therapy sessions.

She, her husband and family also work a pecan orchard. During pecan season, the entire family will make a day of going out to pick the pecans.

“During hunting season, I would give my husband time off for one of his favorite pastimes, but he has to come meet us later,” Hebert said.

In the months following the accident, Hebert said her family rallied to support her during the long recovery.

“One of my daughters would come over every day to help dress the wounds on my legs. It took six months for those to heal,” she said. “Gabrielle (her daughter) still came every day even when she did not need to.”

One of her sons would come every morning before going to work to help work her legs. She was confined to a sitting or lying position for several months during the recovery. Her husband, who prior to the accident would cook an occasional gumbo or barbecue, took over all of the cooking and shopping duties.

“He still does all of the cooking today,” Hebert said.

Her family would help transport Hebert in a variety of ways to help keep her active. When her mother fell ill, Hebert’s family would get her in the wheelchair, wrap her legs with blankets and they would all walk a few blocks to her mother’s home.

“It was easier than getting her in and out of the car, and we enjoyed being out as a family,” Gabrielle Trotter, her daughter, said.

Similar transportation innovations kept her involved in the orchard.

“During the pecan season, we would go out to the orchards as a family and make a day of picking pecans. Even the grandchildren would help,” Hebert said. “After the accident, we bought a “mule” (a four-wheel, all-terrain vehicle) so that I could go out there.”

The family would utilize a transfer board to move Hebert from the wheelchair into the car, drive to the orchard and then transfer her and her wheelchair into the “mule.” She would sit in her wheelchair and pick pecans with a special grabber.

“When one of the grandkids would start to pick pecans near my wheelchair, I would say, ‘Watch where you pick, that’s my spot,’ and we would all laugh,” Hebert said.

Hebert said she no longer climbs, because she is concerned about her balance. She also cannot stoop down. She must go down on her knees and then sit.

“Up until last year, I was still walking with a cane. Now, Herbert and I go to the Wellness Center at Dauterive Hospital and work out. I don’t have to use the cane any more, and I am getting more limber,” Hebert said. “When we go pick pecans, I bring a stool so that I can sit while I pick the pecans.”

Before the accident, Hebert had an interest in making soap the old-fashioned way.

“I imagined myself out in my garden, stirring a big pot. But, I was apprehensive about working with lye, which is needed in the process, so I never did try it. I just kept putting it off,” she said.

While recovering, she read a book about the soap-making process. It stated that if one respects the caustic ingredient and takes the necessary precautions, the dangers are greatly reduced. She said she finally worked up the nerve to give it a try.

“I was afraid to try it (soap-making) for so long. When I finally did try it, I loved it,” Hebert said.

She said her soaps are made using vegetable oils, mostly olive oil or coconut oil.

She has set up a Web site, gabrielleacres.com, to sell her products.

She has branched off into the making of hand-poured soy candles, as well as her all-natural soaps. She also attends the Herb Festival in Sunset each May, bringing the fresh herbs from her garden. She is now getting ready for pecan season and looking forward to spending time with her family out in the orchards.

She said she does not dwell on the accident. She said she feels her best outlook is to take one day at a time and continue to do things that give her pleasure.

“It seems that I was able to get closer to my grandkids. When I was recovering, I would be sitting in my wheelchair or on the sofa or lying in bed. Before, I would be standing and looking down at the grandchildren. After, I was on their level. It brought us closer,” she said.

One is even following in her footsteps by developing an interest in planting things.

“We put some potting soil in some cups and planted seeds together. We loved doing these things together,” she said.

Whether talking about making hot tamales in the kitchen with her family, making a combination for her soaps and candles or even just sitting out in her garden, her eyes sparkle as she speaks.

“My son said that it (the accident) changed all of us, but it was a change for the better,” she said.