MOSCOW, Idaho -- Many people are greeting Roy E. Mosman these days with a heartfelt "Good to see you!"

Mosman, a 66-year-old attorney and former district judge, responds with an equally sincere, "It's good to be seen."That's how he makes light of some very heavy circumstances.

"Lots of people have tough roads," he shrugs, "and this one, well, we're still not quite there."

Mosman, a recent member of the Idaho Board of Education, continues to go through rehabilitation after he fell last June 27, struck his head and ended up in a coma.

Thousands of University of Idaho football fans this season greeted him as he made his way, cane in hand, to mid-field in the Kibbie Dome. The crowd applauded him for his years of service on the education board. But many of the fans were also cheering Mosman's victory against the odds.

His wife, Barbara, contrasts the ovation with the first question an attending physician asked just hours after the accident: "Does your husband have a living will?"

Actually, said Barbara, her husband has something better -- a will to live.

"By next summer," Mosman said, "I want to be playing golf again."

In the meantime, he's working to regain the full use of his limbs and recoup some more of his memory.

"It was just a short little stairway and there was nothing to it. I don't know why I fell. I don't remember any of it."

Barbara, on the other hand, remembers the accident all too well.

"He was going to back the car out, and we were going someplace," she said. "I was fooling around in the kitchen and I heard the door slam between our house and the garage. I thought it was the wind."

When she investigated, Barbara found her husband at the bottom of the flight of stairs, lying motionless and not breathing.

"I hit the edge of the door right here," said Roy, pointing to the right side of his head. "And it pushed my neck back and broke my neck."

Having compensated since childhood for a disease that left his left leg shorter than his right, Mosman had undergone corrective hip surgery only weeks earlier.

"He was on crutches, and I think he just got caught up in them," said Barbara. She called 911 and Moscow EMTs arrived moments later.

Mosman was taken unconscious to Gritman Medical Center and then St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston.

There, his wife and family, including five children and numerous grandchildren, took up the vigil.

"I have a religion that deals with things like this," said Mosman, a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "If I hadn't come around, we have a belief about what happens under those circumstances."

For eight days, Mosman lay in a coma with doctors hedging on a prognosis.

"They were very discouraging about his chances for recovery," Barbara recalled. But the family was already deep in prayer.

One of the Mosmans' four sons, attorney Craig Mosman, said at the time, "We have an eye of hope. He's in there fighting, and that's what we expect from him. He's a very strong man."

Roy Mosman deflects such accolades in favor of something he says is even stronger.

"Part of this thing is that we believe in prayer," he explained. "And there were people all over this town and in Lewiston, in our church and other churches, who were praying."

It was a weeklong effort that was scheduled to end on a Sunday.

"And on that Sunday," said Mosman, "I woke up."

Despite the head trauma and the lack of oxygen to his brain, the broken neck and the injured spinal cord, Mosman was conscious again and, as predicted by his family, determined to make as full a recovery as possible.

One of the first things he remembered was how to sing the fight song from his alma mater, Boise High School. An All-American while playing football for Boise Junior College in 1951, Mosman was also a lineman for the Idaho Vandals.

Barbara said her husband's determination early in life, despite his physical limitations, has undoubtedly served him well when facing current challenges.

The support from colleagues and friends, said Barbara, has also helped prod her husband toward recovery.

"We have two laundry baskets full of letters that Roy hasn't gone through yet because there are so many."

Mosman goes to physical therapy three times a week.

"He came in here and he was walking with a walker and it was really ugly," said therapist Kelly Mahoney. "Then we went to a cane and now we've been working on walking without anything."

Mosman has also been working on his golf swing.

"We don't have any clubs here," said Mahoney, "so we've been working with his cane."

The therapy, said Mosman, taxes both his determination and strength. His limitations have also triggered some pretty good laughs. For example, he's not too good with buttons.

"And sometimes," he quipped, "I can't get my zipper up."

Mosman said the experience hasn't necessarily given him a better appreciation of life. He's always had that.

"But I'm constantly re-impressed with Barbara and the kids and their spouses. Barbara has carried this thing along for months, without any help except from our kids. And you know, there are a lot of people who wouldn't have done that."

As for the future, Mosman prefaced his goals with a glimpse back at his August resignation from the Board of Education. In light of his unexpected recovery, he has some regrets.

"As I think about it now, I should have waited. I might not have done it."

View Comments

He hopes to rejoin his sons Craig and Winn in the family law practice.

"I feel good, but I'm not sharp enough yet to practice law." Barbara even hints of politics.

"I asked him if he wanted to run for the Legislature, with all his expertise."

To which, Mosman only smiles and says he "won't touch politics." But he confesses that being a paid lobbyist is somewhat attractive.

Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.