MIDDLESEX TWP — Roma Park, 83, will be able to reach up and give her husband, Wayne, a big hug on their 62nd wedding anniversary on Saturday, which might not have been the case after her accident a year ago on Election Day 2013.

On that morning, Park went into the kitchenette at the Middlesex Township municipal building to get a cup of coffee in her role as a judge of elections. The next thing she knew, she was face down on the floor.

Park, who still doesn’t know why she fell, was rushed to UPMC Passavant Hospital in McCandless Township and found she had two broken shoulders, a broken nose, and a gash under her lip that required six stitches.

“I was a mess,” Park said on Tuesday.

While such serious injuries may have caused a decline in some octogenarians, Park fought back from surgery to repair one shoulder and completely replace the other. After a week’s stay in the hospital, Park was moved to a nursing home for a month of care and rehabilitation.

“When I went to rehab, the nurses called me ‘the prayer lady’ because my arms were in slings and my hands were positioned like I was praying,” Park recalled.

She said to the nursing home staff’s amazement, she was immediately able to maneuver her wheelchair with her legs to move around the building.

“They were amazed at the strength I had in my legs,” Park said, “but I’ve always been active. I’ve never been one to sit around.”

Once at home, Park remained unable to feed or dress herself or do any everyday personal care tasks.

That’s where her husband, Wayne, stepped in. He took over the cooking, cleaning, laundry, and care of his wife.

“He is just an angel,” Park said of the man she married in 1952. “I have always felt that way, but now it’s even more so. I come first, and that’s the way he always is with me.”

She said her neighbors delivered meals to the Parks twice per week while Park recuperated.

“They made enough so you’d have dinner for a couple of days,” Park said.

She said the worst part of her recuperation was not being able to dress herself. She said physical therapists told her daughters to buy pullover blouses in a size extra large, as opposed to Park’s usual size medium.

“My daughter bought stretchy tops so they would go over my arms,” Park said. “I hated them. They were like tents.”

She said by September she could finally button up her own blouses that she donned with the help of her husband.

Although Park has retired from the Elections Bureau after 24 years, and her repaired shoulder will not allow her to retrieve items on her kitchen’s top shelf, she is back to her previous activities.

“I’m here and we’re still doing things,” Park said cheerfully. “Today, we’re going to vote, then to Butler, and then out to eat. (The accident) is not going to keep me down.”

The only repercussions from the accident is her refusal to return to the site of the accident, and a newfound fear of escalators.

“I went up an escalator at Boscov’s, and I just could not come down,” Park said. “I just froze. So we went down the elevator.”

She also tries to avoid thinking about the fall as much as possible.

“I can still hear the crack when I hit,” she said.

Wayne Park is ecstatic that his wife is back to her old self and enjoying life.

“It couldn’t come soon enough to suit me,” he said.

Wayne Park summed up the feelings of all Roma’s friends and family who helped her through the past year.

“She did real good,” he said. “She’s a toughie.”