Thanksgiving marks one week since retired Puxico, Missouri, elementary-school teacher Margaret Binford was able to stop wearing the brace that supported the four cracked vertebrae in her lower back.

She and her husband, Ray, also a retired elementary-school teacher, suffered a fall while hiking together in Washington state. They consider their survival nothing short of miraculous.

"We fell about 300 ... well, we rolled about 300 feet," Margaret said.

They arrived in Washington on Aug. 22 expecting to hike and camp in a state park, but when rangers called and told them complications from summer wildfires had forced them to close the park, the Binfords detoured to Palouse Falls Trail.

Neither of the Binfords recalls any of the accident. Ray remembers parking the truck by the trail, but everything past that is blank. Hikers later found them later about 100 feet apart.

Ray Binford

"We've been hiking for 40 years. We're cautious," Margaret said. "Something must have had to have collapsed out from under us."

Her cracked vertebrae are only part of the litany of injuries she and Ray suffered. Both sustained concussions. Margaret broke ribs, shattered a kneecap and had a collapsed lung. Ray suffered a laceration near his eye and had to have a plate surgically implanted into his crushed wrist.

Physical therapy in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, twice a week keeps them busy, but they've found strength and optimism in each other and in continued support from family and friends.

"We are very thankful that we are still here," Margaret said.

She was taken to a hospital in Richland, Washington, but because of the severity of the cut near his eye, Ray was taken to a specialist in Spokane, Washington. They endured the first few days apart but were reunited Aug. 28 when Ray was flown to Richland, about two hours from Spokane by car.

"That was a very happy day when we could actually see each other. We Facetimed a bit, but we couldn't be sure the other was OK," Margaret said.

They were airlifted to St. Louis on Sept. 2, the day after their 42nd wedding anniversary. Doctors found a blood clot behind Margaret's knee, and she spent five days in Barnes Jewish Hospital.

After that, she said, a doctor figured out her other lung was partially collapsed.

She said their story earned her and her husband a reputation at the hospital.

"One of the nurses said, 'Oh, I know you! You're the cliff lady. Everyone on the floor knows your story,'" she says.

On Sept. 22, nearly a month after the fall, they left the hospital and rode back to Puxico.

"Everybody looks at us and thinks, 'Wow, what a story,'" Margaret says. "It's kind of a miracle we're still here."

The Binfords say it's impossible to list or thank everyone who has helped them throughout their ordeal, but their support has been invaluable.

Today, they're spending Thanksgiving with family. In December, Margaret goes back to the spine doctor, hoping for the expected good news that things are healing as they should.

"It's just going to take time," she said. "We've been together through a lot over the years, me and my husband, but we'll make it."

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627