Hello.

I never thought that our family would ever face a situation like this.

Honestly, it feels unrealistic even now in this moment of writing this. It hasn't been a month since the accident, but it feels like it's been forever, or like some pieces of moments where I question myself if this was really happening.

I hear motorcycles go by outside the window, and I look out the window... it's a habit, to see if Joe is pulling into the driveway with his bike. But here we are.

*A Little Bit About Joe...

My husband, Joseph Gardner, or Joe, is an active war zone combat veteran. He deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in his early 20s and lost good friends there. Then he was lastly deployed to South Korea, where he and I met and paired up for this life. He served 9 years. He and I have 2 girls, 10 and 7 years old.

Then he became a police officer and served the community for 8 years. He is still proud of his past careers, as he loves providing service and taking care of people. He truly loves his country and community.

Recently, he became a phlebotomist prior to the accident and was thriving. I told him, "After 17 years, you found your true calling!" And it was heartwarming that he finally found something peaceful yet productive, building a whole new career path.

*What Happened...

On the morning of July 30, 2026, we were planning to take the girls to "First Day of School" shopping. He's a gym rat, that's what Joe calls himself, and he was asking if it was okay for him to go to the gym before the shopping trip.

I looked at him with a pouty face and said, "Now?" I didn't want him to go, but I let him go because I knew he wanted to take every bit of advantage of riding his beloved Indian Challenger.

I never imagined, even in a dream, what would happen, and I try not to think about whether this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't let him go.

It was 2026 7/30 11:22am when I got the automatic emergency alert that Joe's Apple Watch detected a crash and emergency services had been called, with a GPS map attached. At first I was thinking maybe his bike hit a speed bump too hard on the way home. I decided to wait 15 minutes, since according to the GPS, that's where the accident occurred.

I waited for him and his shiny white Indian to show up with the speaker playing music. No bike, no Joe. I started getting scared, looked up the map and sure enough, the exact spot from the emergency alert was marked as some sort of traffic jam.

Then shortly after, I got a call from a gentleman who said Joe was in an accident, that he was with him and that Joe got hurt pretty badly. Then an EMT called me and let me talk to Joe briefly. Joe said he loves me and to tell the girls that Daddy loves them. I called his parents and headed to the hospital.

My husband saw and remembers most of it, as he didn’t lost consciousness, and was scared he was going to bleed out as he sat there, until a random stranger (bless him) showed up and put a tourniquet on him. His thigh bone and shin bone were broken, and his foot was... completely destroyed.

I saw his foot at the trauma bay. I'd never seen anything like that in person before. And a 205 lb strong weightlifter, lying there powerlessly and telling people that he doesn't care if that foot has to come off, as long as he has his wife and can see our girls grow up.

I don't even remember how I held myself together while looking at him and listening to him. I didn't cry. Maybe some would say I'm cold, but all I could think was that I can't lose myself and cry while my husband is lying there, and he's probably scared a hundred times more than I am.

All I could tell him was that he's okay, we will be okay, and that was also something I was saying to myself.

After 4+ hours of surgery, thankfully he came out alive and surprisingly didn't have any other major injuries, but the doctors weren't sure if the foot would be salvageable. And the pain he had to endure for the first 5 days was indescribable. We both hoped for the best but we were aware there was a high chance of amputation.

And that's what happened. My husband, who was in an active combat zone more than once and came back in one piece from every deployment, lost his leg just like that.

*Moving Forward...

I try not to think about the what-ifs, would'ves, could'ves, whys, and hows, because it's already happened and we cannot change anything.

I am just focusing on the fact that thank god he's alive, and focusing on his recovery, while taking care of "normal life stuff": our girls and school, bills, pets, food, and my own mental health.

I didn't cry and held myself up well, but our community, God bless you all, is what finally broke me (in a good way), and I couldn't stop crying, because people I didn't even know, whose names I don't know, had never met, never talked to before... somehow found me, reaching out and asking how they could help and saying they were praying for us. I genuinely thank you, everyone.

At first I said "no" when someone mentioned setting up a GoFundMe. I was like, why? I don't want to ask anybody for anything.

Then I started facing the reality, and people who heard about the tragedy and care about us gave advice that we need to learn to lean on others when it's offered and just be grateful.

So that's what I've decided to do and I agreed to set up this page.

We're already grateful to everyone who already has us in their prayers, and money isn't the only way to support us. Please keep my husband in your prayers, as he and our family have a whole new journey ahead of us.

We don't expect anything from anyone, but we will be grateful for anyone who supports us in any way.

God bless you all.

Sincerely,
The Gardner Family