by Dawn Cobb
A daughter’s quick thinking has one Lantana mom very thankful on this Mother’s Day.
Julia Leahy, who suffers from seizures following an accident six years ago, was feeling wobbly one recent day and sat down on the living room couch. A few minutes later, she began mumbling and then stopped talking altogether. Her 11-year-old daughter Taryn saw her mom’s condition and quickly texted a neighbor, who immediately came over and dialed 911.
Now, weeks later, Leahy says she is amazed at how calmly her youngest of two daughters handled the situation, which she said was devolving into a paralysis stage in the seizure.
Argyle Fire Department paramedics arrived and took her to an area hospital where she received treatment.
“I don’t remember much of it, just that I couldn’t move and all I could see was a dark tunnel,” she noted. “My daughter is a hero and also my friend and neighbor.”
Taryn, a sixth grader at Harpool Middle School, remembers learning about calling 911 during a school assembly.
Though reticent to talk about what happened, Taryn said she knew she needed to get help and soon.
“She had such calmness,” Leahy said of her daughter. “She’s my angel. I’m very proud.”
The family, who moved to Lantana two years ago, have worked together to help Julia Leahy adjust to her condition, each taking on different chores they were not accustomed to handling.
Her husband handles the grocery shopping while the girls split chores with the oldest handling the kitchen and the youngest overseeing the living room and cleaning out litter boxes.
Though it is challenging for Leahy to have to depend heavily on friends and family, she feels lucky to have their support as well as the opportunity to be with them.
“God had a huge hand in this,” she said, referring to her survival from a 15-floor elevator collapse six years ago. “He let me stay with my babies.
“I’m beyond proud of the way they (family and friends) have handled things.”
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