By Annabeth Miller,
ShowMe Times Editor

August 27, 2010. It was just another ordinary day.

It was just before noon on that hot day. Kids had been in school classrooms for about a week. The first home football game of the season was that night.

And Jerry Kiger was doing his job – installing new bulbs in the stadium lighting at Charles Bland Stadium. He was climbing the southeastern-most pole when his life changed.

"There's a piece of angle iron welded onto that pole because there used to be a junction box there. So, when you climb or descend that pole, you have to take your harness off to get past it," he said. Kiger removed his harness and was maneuvering around the extension.

He'd been climbing the poles at the football stadium since he was 19. This time, however, something went wrong.

“I got up there and I don’t know – dehydration set in and probably old age, and I didn’t have the strength I used to have, I guess,” he said. His gear was caught as he made his descent. He fell 40 feet, managing to not hit a concrete pad by inches.

The inventory of injuries is mind-boggling. Shattered right heel. Broken left leg. Three vertebrae broken in his back. Broken sternum.

Despite the injuries, Kiger said he’s “pretty okay.”

“By the end of the day you’re hurting,” he explained. “It’s getting better. In the past month or two I’ve noticed lots of improvement. It’s amazing.”

He says he’s noticed that it’s easier to climb into the back of the truck, even though he’s not jumping out with the ease he once did.

“Things are coming back,” he said. It’s going to take just a little bit longer, but when there’s 11 screws and a plate in your foot --- you’re not supposed to have steel inside your bone.”

All-in-all, Kiger said things are getting back to what would be ‘normal’ for a guy with his own business, and a family that includes his wife Karen, daughter Jackie who’s in seventh grade and a high school sophomore Wyatt.

He’s looking forward to being on hand for the Bearcats Jamboree Friday night, and to watching Wyatt play football, and to those volleyball games and other school activities he missed last year.

One memory that stands out during his recovery was about month after the accident and he attended his daughter Jackie’s volleyball game at T.S. Hill Middle School.

“I was in a wheelchair,” he recalled. “They stopped the game and everybody stood up and clapped when I came into the gym,” he said. “That kinda puts things in check. No one had seen me in three weeks, and I go in there to see my daughter play volleyball. The game stopped.”

Kiger also credits good friends and good customers to helping the family make it through a unique year. He says “good, loyal customers” stood by his company while he was out of pocket, and he’s very appreciative of their support.

“It’s been a life-changing experience,” he said. “There are a lot of things that just aren’t as important as they used to be. As long as you’ve got family then everything else can go on down the road. Friends and family.”

“Life is good.”