Lynchburg’s bicentennial baby recovering after accident

The city of Lynchburg greeted Tember Kier Ferguson with fanfare at her birth on Oct. 16, 1986, as the first baby born in Lynchburg’s second 200 years.

Dubbed the bicentennial baby, she was showered with gifts that included a key to the city. She was invited to be on hand when the city opens a time capsule in 2036.

Twenty-two years later, she’s on an uphill climb toward recovery in a Lynchburg hospital after a car accident in September that nearly killed her and her 2-year-old daughter.

Clifton Potter, who was vice chairman of the board that organized the bicentennial celebration, was shocked when he heard about the accident.

“I am so sorry that she was in an accident,” he said.

“That’s just terrible.”

His hopes are with her for a full recovery, he said.

“She needs to get well,” he said. “She needs to be around in (2036).”

Ferguson’s mother, Viktorya Ore, recalled the day of her daughter’s birth, and said she was floored by the celebration.

After 36 hours of labor and an emergency Caesarean section, Ore was greeted on Oct. 16, 1986, with a hubbub she never expected.

“I was totally out of it and they come in with cameras, taking pictures,” she said.

“I remember them bringing in baskets and baskets, and balloons and ribbons.”

Ore and her husband at the time, Cecil Ferguson, brought their daughter to their Timberlake Road home and packed away the mementoes of the celebratory birth.

Ferguson grew up and eventually had a daughter of her own. She and her daughter’s father, her fiancé William Ware, were living in Concord, working on setting a date for their wedding.

Then, on Sept. 22, she was driving on Virginia 24 near Concord, with 22-month-old Laylah in the back seat, when police say her vehicle crossed the center line and collided with a tractor-trailer.

Mother and daughter were airlifted to Lynchburg General Hospital. Ore, a nursing student, was working in the mother-baby unit that night.

She said emergency responders at first thought Ferguson had died in the crash.

“Because the baby was still alive, they airlifted her body and the baby in the same helicopter, and they felt a slight pulse,” Ore said, recalling the night.

Ferguson was put on a ventilator to help her breathe, and Ore was told to prepare for the worst.

Her daughter has since survived brain surgery and other operations, as well as a collapsed lung.

“Being a nursing student, I’ve seen miracles, but nothing like this,” Ore said.

Ware, recalling the night of the accident, said Ferguson had dropped him off not long before, so he could pick up his own car at a repair shop.

“When I heard the sirens I went to call my dad and asked, ‘has Tember gotten home yet?’” Ware said, “and he said, no she hadn’t.”

The couple was staying at his father’s house, so Ware headed that way.

“I drove up on Tember’s car there smashed on the side of the road,” he said.

Ware said the whole situation has been hard on him — not only the accident, but also taking care of a child without her mother there.

“I just take it day by day,” he said. “I’m not the best, but you know, I play with the cards I was dealt. It’s definitely not easy.”

Ware said Laylah’s family, particularly her great-grandparents on Ferguson’s side, help watch her until he gets off work. Then she stays with her father and his dad.

“She’s great. She’s a normal 2-year-old, a little smarter than the average 2-year-old,” he said.

She knows something is wrong, Ware said, though she may not know exactly what that is.

“She calls for her mom sometimes,” he said, but she knows her mother isn’t there.

Ore said she recently took Laylah to the hospital. “I said ‘your mommy’s sick, she’s sleeping.’

“She said ‘mommy’s sleeping,’ then she said ‘I love you mommy.’”Lynchburg Mayor Joan Foster expressed her sympathy for the family, offering to help in whatever way she can.

“My thoughts and prayers go out to the family,” she said, adding that she would like to visit Ferguson when she is better able to receive visitors.

“I really feel that whatever I can do as mayor to uplift (Ferguson) I’d be happy to do,” Foster said.

Ore said even with the progress her daughter is showing, she has a hard time keeping her emotions balanced.

“I have days that I stand in the shower and I don’t know what’s tears and what’s water,” Ore said.

She said her husband, Jason Ore, whom she lives with now in the McConville Road area, has been her stability.

“He’s been my backbone. He cooks, he cleans, he scrubs toilets, he does everything that I just don’t have time to do,” she said.

But most importantly, she said, her faith keeps her going, and she strongly believes there’s a reason her daughter is still alive.

“If God wanted to take her, she was already gone, and there were so many chances,” she said. “She’s still here, so there has to be some purpose for her.”

Though Ferguson’s recovery is slow and sometimes discouraging, Ore said her love for her daughter keeps her forever optimistic.

“A mother never loses hope,” said Ore. “This is my first child, and that’s when I first knew what love was.”