Grad has resumed life after deadly crash

That's all it takes for Christina Matty to walk across the stage, accept her high school diploma, shake a few hands, walk down the steps and into the rest of her life.

But oh, what work went into those seven seconds.

Flashback to a little less than a year ago: June 16, 2005.

Horribly burned from an automobile accident that had just taken the lives of her father, brother, and two friends, Christina lay by the side of the road off Interstate 10 east of Indio, Calif., waiting for the paramedics to arrive.

Pneumonia, a blood infection, skin grafts, months of painful therapy — all would follow, along with the doubts.

Would she live? Would she die? For a while, no one knew.

And what about her life after? Would she ever return to school? Go to the prom? Drive a car? Graduate?

Yes to life. Yes to normalcy. Yes to the future.

And nothing says "future" like high school graduation — in this case the one held Thursday night at Sahuarita High School.

With air horns blasting and balloons and platitudes drifting into the blackened sky, 182 newly minted grads accept the hugs and cheers of family and friends.

Christina is no different, grabbing onto grandmas, aunts and uncles from both sides of her family, all here to relish the night — a night once in great doubt.

"It's because of a night like this that gives you hope," says Jan Davis, Christina's aunt.

Yet it is also a night tinged in sadness. For two are not here who surely would have been: Christina's dad and brother.

"When I was signing her graduation card, it was very hard for me," says Christina's mom, Nancy Rowley. "I told her, 'I know your dad and Daniel are watching and are very proud of you.'"

But if there are tears this night, you will not see them in Christina's eyes — at least not for the moment, here in the congratulatory tumult surging across the football field.

"She's the toughest survivor I've ever met," says Lori Jorgensen, Christina's high school counselor these last four years.

Christina had first walked back into the classroom in mid-fall, almost two months past the first day of school.

"A lot of people were staring at me. It made me feel self-conscious," says Christina, 18, whose limbs and torso are still swathed in flesh-colored compression garments, designed to smooth out the scars.

While dead skin is no longer sloughing off her body, her new skin is still dark purple. "It should lighten in the next few months," says Christina, her voice still softened by six weeks on a ventilator.

Back pain has also kept her off the Sahuarita coed golf team, where she once claimed the top spot.

No more. "I only tried it a couple of times," says Christina. "It hurts my back. I have to build up."

But her light brown hair has filled in the two bald spots on the back of her head. And she no longer has to wear a plastic mask to bed at night to soften the skin on her face — skin temporarily singed pink by the fire that engulfed her father's van that night in the California desert.

Killed in the accident were Christina's father, Lance Matty, 53, a champion speedboat racer; her brother Daniel, 14; and father and daughter Joe and Ashley Perrin.

Joe, 42, and Ashley, 15, were part of the racing crew that weekend, subbing for regular crew chief Dave Damiani.

Like many in the boating community, Dave and his wife, Lydia, have been there for Christina, even spiriting her away from her Sacramento hospital for a few hours last summer.

Christina regularly baby-sits their two children and often comes over for dinner or even to spend the night.

"We want it to be a place where she can come and hang out," says Lydia.

Meanwhile, home for Christina is where it's always been, just off a dirt road 10 miles from the high school, the home she once made with her father after her parents' divorce.

Now she lives there with her mother and a half-dozen puppies.

Out front sits a '98 Honda Prelude Christina got in January. Like her father, she's got something of a lead foot. "Yes, I've gotten a ticket," she ruefully admits.

Inside the house, her boyfriend, Stephen Crowley, 20, sits working on the computer.

"We met a couple of months ago," says Christina. They met in the time-honored way: cruising on Speedway.

At the moment, Crowley is downloading photos of Christina and her best friends, Cindy Martinez and Chasity West, taken before last month's prom.

In the photos Christina is wearing a pale yellow dress, a gauzy shawl, and long gloves, all designed to hide her compression garments.

"I bought a strapless gown, then took it to alterations to have a top made," she says.

But as is often the case with much-anticipated events, the prom, Christina reports, was "boring."

Better are the boat races she's been attending here and there.

Last month, she attended a race at Firebird International Raceway south of Phoenix, along with Joni Perrin, wife of Joe, mother to Ashley.

While there, Christina strolled the racing pits, talking to the crews who knew her father. "All of them were happy to see me. I'm glad I was there."

Since the accident, she and Joni have grown closer.

"My mom and I spent Christmas Eve with the Matty family and Christina," says Joni, who lost her entire immediate family. "She's a very outgoing little girl. I love her to pieces."

In the fall, Christina plans to enroll in real estate classes at Pima Community College.

But for now, the books can wait. All summer long she'll follow the circuit — the same one her father once raced — through Arizona, California, Oregon and Texas.

On June 16, the one-year anniversary of the accident, she'll visit the crash site outside Indio, along with Joni Perrin and other friends and family members.

"We adopted that section of the highway," says Joni, who last summer erected a plaque in memory of the racing team, along with four crosses.

Meanwhile, Lance Matty's boat still sits under cover next to his home in Sahuarita. Waiting.

"Our goal is maybe this year or next year, depending on Christina's health, to get her driving the boat," says Dave Damiani.

"Yes, I want to do it," says Christina.

Never doubted her for a minute.

"She's the toughest survivor I've ever met."

Lori Jorgensen

Christina's high school counselor