Dr. Teresa Harman Bell (‘92) has a wonderful family and a successful career as a pharmacist for the Schnucks supermarket chain in Memphis. But, her real story is one of survival and inspiration. While a UT Martin student, Bell was involved in a serious traffic accident that almost cost her everything. Today, memories of the life-changing accident remain, but instead of dwelling on what might have been, she remembers those who reached out to her during difficult times.
Bell, 35, was raised in Tipton County and attended Thrifthaven Baptist School, a private school in Memphis. She was influenced to enter the health-care profession by her aunt, Annie Sue Clift, a former UT Martin nursing faculty member who was also involved in the fateful accident. “I’ve always been very close to her, and from the time I was little, I thought I wanted to be a nurse or be in the medical profession,” Bell said.
Her aunt influenced Bell in another way by introducing her to UT Martin when she was a toddler. “She used to bring me up to the nursing department and let her nursing students do some kind of developmental test on me. I was their test subject,” she said. Bell later participated in the university’s Pacesetters Summer Honors Program in 1989 between her junior and senior years in high school. The Pacesetter experience acquainted her with Drs. Ernie Blythe and Bill Zachry, who then led the university’s Honors Programs. She eventually earned a University Scholars award to attend UT Martin starting in fall 1990.
The University Scholars Program was a highlight of Bell’s UT Martin experience. “It (Honors Programs) was unlike any of my other classroom experiences,” she recalled. “It was small-group sessions that tried to expand our horizons and our thinking about various things. We studied and discussed ethical issues, political hot topics, the civil rights movement and the environment.” Additionally, Bell was involved in the university’s award-winning Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society (SAACS), in the Baptist Student Union and was active in Martin First Baptist Church.
Adding to an eventful first year in college, Bell came in contact for the first time in early 1991 with Bub and Mary Cole, who impacted her life and the lives of many other University Scholars. Bell and three fellow scholars were asked to speak to the UT Martin Development Committee on behalf of Honors Programs. Meanwhile, Houston Gordon (’68), a Covington attorney, UT trustee and member of the development committee, had invited the Coles to attend the meeting. Cole, owner of the well-known Cole’s Do It Best Center in Millington, heard the presentations and was particularly impressed with Bell.
“Well, she just made me think that you could almost see a halo around her head,” Cole said. “And, on the way home, I told my wife, … ‘We’re giving Uncle Sam a good bit of money in taxes, not knowing where in the world it’s going. … Here, we could help someone, and we would know where it was going.’” Cole soon met with then-Chancellor Margaret Perry (’61) and surprised everyone by funding four University Scholars awards.
“I don't remember anything specific about what I said that day,” Bell said. “I remember telling them about my experiences in the Honors Program and how much it meant to me personally. At the time, I had no idea that what I said was of any significance at all. Mr. and Mrs. Cole have touched countless people through the funding of the Cole Scholarship.” Bell did not learn about the scholarships until later, when the Coles’ generosity made a difference in her own life.
Bell was well on her way to earning a spot in pharmacy school when life took a tragic turn. In July 1991, she and her family went on a vacation to Virginia Beach, Va. Her brother, Tim, was attending Memphis State, and she had just completed the first term of summer school, ready to begin the second term following the trip. Her aunt had served as a camp nurse for Girls in Action and was teaching summer courses. Also on the trip were her mother and father, Bob and Ruby Harman. They decided to return to Tennessee by driving all night. Somewhere between Crossville and Cookeville, they stopped the van to buy gas. When they resumed the trip, her brother was driving, her dad was in the front passenger seat, and her mother decided to lie in the floor in front of the first row of seats in the back. Bell and her aunt sat in the seat behind her mom but did not wear their seat belts. A short time later, the wreck occurred.
“I remember waking up from the noise and vibrations from the ridges on the side of the interstate,” Bell recalled. “My brother hit the brakes, the right-front tire blew out, and the van went into a roll. I don’t remember the impact or any of the events at the accident scene.” Investigating officers later said that the van rolled at least three times, once end-over-end. The crash ejected her aunt, her mother and Bell.
Clift’s neck was broken, leaving her paralyzed. The roof of the van collapsed on her brother, causing severe brain and spinal cord damage. Her father received some scrapes and was the only passenger to avoid hospitalization. Her mother, the first ejected, avoided broken bones but received major injuries by skidding on broken glass and asphalt. Bell suffered multiple injuries, including a completely broken femur and a severely injured kneecap that was broken into six pieces. Miraculously, she avoided head and spinal injuries. “My father said when he found me my toes were sticking up under my armpit, and that’s not something you can (physically) do,” she said, trying to add some humor to a difficult memory.
Her aunt and brother were the most severely injured, so they were airlifted from the accident site to Knoxville. Bell and her mother were taken by ambulance to Cookeville Regional Medical Center and then driven by ambulance from Cookeville to Knoxville. “So we all ended up at UT Medical Center in Knoxville,” Bell said. “We could not have received better care there. They were absolutely wonderful to us.”
Her aunt battled pneumonia and other complications from her injuries, while her brother’s head injuries resulted in a deep coma that lasted for weeks. Even though his brain swelling eventually eased, he remained unresponsive, and doctors advised the family to prepare for long-term care. “My aunt improved. I think a large part of her holding on was because I think she was fighting for the sake of my brother,” she said. “She felt if she let go that he would blame himself, and at that time we didn’t know how he was going to recover, but …” she paused, collected her thoughts and added, “It was just a fight for life for both of them.”
Bell was discharged from the hospital in just under three weeks following several surgeries. She remained at the hospital, alternating visits with her aunt and brother. In the midst of this, the beginning of fall semester was fast approaching. “I wanted to go back to school, but more than anything, I wanted to be with my family,” she recalled. Bell was in a wheelchair, had a cast on her arm and required assistance, but she reasoned that by going back to school, her parents had one less person under their care.
A decision was made to move her aunt to a Memphis rehabilitation center, so her mother came back to West Tennessee with Clift. Meanwhile, her father stayed with her brother, who remained in a deep coma in Knoxville. Bell returned home to stay with friends until school started. About the time that fall semester started, her brother began making improvements. Over a period of weeks, he gradually came out of the coma.
Returning to Martin was tough for Bell, made even more difficult in that Bell and Clift had rented a house together, so her aunt’s absence made the adjustment even harder. Adding to the challenge was Bell having to use a wheelchair the first few weeks of school before graduating to a walker, so she couldn’t drive or walk. To her amazement, an entire community seemed to step in and help.
Faculty members, Ernie Blythe (now deceased) and Bill Zachry, along with friends from church, took her class schedule and literally took charge. “There were just an overwhelming number of friends who said, ‘I can take her to class at this time, and I can pick her up at the end of class and take her to this one, and I can take her back home.’” Nancy Claybrook, a friend from church, volunteered to drive Bell to Memphis when she needed to see an orthopedic physician for follow-up. “It seemed like everyone I knew gave me their phone number and said, ‘If you need a ride, just give me a call, and I’ll come pick you up.’”
Bell also went to and from physical therapy to build strength and range of motion in her severely broken leg, use of which wasn’t fully restored until after another surgery in December of that year. “I would not have been able to come back to school. I would not have been able to make it to my classes, physical therapy and make it back home again if it had not been for this army of people who were willing to help me,” said Bell, who is still deeply moved by the outpouring of assistance.
Bill Zachry, now associate chair of the University of Memphis psychology department, gives Bell credit for persevering. “Teresa was a fighter. She was not going to let the accident defeat her,” he said. “Even before it (the accident) happened, she stood out as a person with strong faith, poise and maturity. Whenever you spent time with Teresa you came away impressed with her personal strength combined with kindness and great depth of character.”
Aiding her recovery was some unexpected news that resulted from her earlier encounter with the Coles – she was the first recipient of their scholarship. “It wasn’t until I decided to come back (to UT Martin following the accident) that they told me about it (the scholarship), and I was just blown away that the Lord had worked that out, because I was already going through so many emotional upheavals at the time that I couldn’t explain it, couldn’t believe it,” Bell said. Besides receiving the scholarship, Bell also received notes and other encouragement from the Coles throughout the 1991-92 school year.
“It’d (have) been so easy for her, in my opinion, to have thrown up her hands and said, ‘Well, this is it,’” said Cole, who is still touched by Bell’s story. “But she fought it, and she fought it. She (overcame) everything, and I admired her back then, and I admire her today.”
With the help of the Coles and many friends and family, Bell completed her work at UT Martin and was accepted early to the UT Heath Science Center College of Pharmacy. She graduated with a doctorate in 1996 and worked at the VA Medical Center in Memphis until 1998. She then joined Seessels (now Schnucks) as a pharmacy manager and has been with the company ever since. She and her husband, Duane, a sheriff’s deputy in Cross County, Ark., have four children, including twins.
Much like Bell, the rest of her family members were never the same after the accident. Her aunt has lived with Bell’s parents since leaving the rehabilitation center. Although Clift has limited use of her arms, she is confined to bed and has never returned to UT Martin, where she had taught from 1973 until the wreck. Her brother, who still has problems with vision and balance, also lives at home and works for his dad. Before the wreck, her dad was in the car-repair and parts business; but, after the accident, he could no longer face the idea of repairing cars, so he began a boat-repair business, Highway 14 Marine, where her brother answers phones and customer questions.
Bell marvels at how her family has adapted but holds special admiration for her aunt, a former missionary. “It always amazed me that she spent her lifetime helping other people. She was a nurse taking care of other people. She was a missionary ministering to other people. Then this accident happened, and suddenly, she was in a position where she couldn’t do anything for others, much less do basic things for herself,” Bell said, adding, “She continues to be a blessing. People come to visit her and think that they’re going to come and cheer her up. But when they leave, they find that she has cheered them up. She is just an amazing person.”
Bell’s own approach to life has changed since that night in 1991. “We have to hug the people around us, appreciate them, because we don’t know when in one minute, one hour, something could dramatically happen and change our lives forever or … take the lives of our loved ones.” Also, she says not to pass up doing something for someone in need, no matter how small the act of kindness. “There are not enough thanks in the world that I can give to the people who did a million little things for us.”
She also has a special place in her heart for Bub and Mary Cole. “After I found out about the Cole Scholarship, I felt it was my responsibility to uphold my end of this. They had put their confidence and their faith in me, and I felt like quitting was not an option.”
“The Campus that Cares” was once a marketing theme for UT Martin. However, these words are much more than a slogan for Teresa Bell, who experienced firsthand what happens when a university campus and community step forward to help a friend.
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