ROBBINSDALE, Minn. - The greening of Twin Cities is spring's reminder time does not stand still.
Yet in some ways it has for Shauna Joas.
“You know the end of school is coming up and it's going to be summer and I feel like we came in here and it was kind of still winter,” Joas says.
The kindergarten teacher is now on leave, spending days and nights in North Memorial Medical Center at the bedside of her husband Bryan.
“A lot of healing,” says Shauna Joas.
Bryan Joas was bike riding home from work on March 8 near the intersection of 250th Street W. and Highview Avenue in Dakota County when he was struck by a truck and left gravely injured by a driver who didn't stop.
The Dakota County Sheriff's department has released pictures of parts believed to belong to light colored pickup truck, described by a witness as having two doors and loud muffler.
Shauna Joas chooses not to dwell on that. “It's not going to change anything so I'm not going to let my energy go to that,” she says. “I need to just focus on Bryan.”
A photo from a recent visit by the couple's two children shows Bryan Joas' marked improvement after 12 surgeries, 40 units of blood, and more than a week and a half on life support.
“He got to go in wheel chair on Thursday and that was very emotional for him to be out of bed and pushing a wheel chair on his own,” says Shauna Joas.
A variety of fundraising efforts have been launched on behalf of the Joas family, including three upcoming benefits in the Twin Cities and the couple's hometown of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Details can be found on Bryan Joas' Caringbridge site.
“It's unbelievable,” Shauna Joas says.
Time hasn't really stood still, of course, because Shauna Joas can finally say, “Okay, I can breathe a little now.”