BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
She had suffered a fractured skull, brain damage and a broken jaw in a Butler County auto accident that also hurt five other people Thursday.
But at University Hospital late Tuesday morning, 14-year-old Markita Bales did something that seemed just short of miraculous to her parents.
"She opened both of her eyes for the first time (since the accident) and looked at her mother and said, "I love you, Mom.' Then she turned to me and said she loved me," Richard Bales said, his voice cracking. "It was instant tears for everybody."
Although Markita and the three teen-age Selby sisters -- Sabrina, Fontaine and Savannah -- had suffered life-threatening injuries in the head-on collision, all were out of critical condition Tuesday. The other two victims of the crash, James Johnston, 63, and his wife, Louetta, 61, weren't hurt as seriously. They were released Tuesday from Fort Hamilton Hospital.
The girls' loved ones say their spirits are buoyed by the girls' apparent progress and by the kindness of relatives, friends and strangers.
"The family just wants to tremendously thank everyone for the outpouring. They've received so much, even from total strangers," said the Selby girls' aunt, Nancy Long of Hamilton.
On Sunday, a man came to the door of the Selbys' residence on Wayne Milford Road, where Mrs. Long had stopped to take care of family pets.
"He had tears in his eyes, and he handed me an envelope to give to the family. I thought, "He must know them really well,' I found out later that he was a total stranger -- and in that envelope was a lovely note saying he'd do anything they needed, scrub the floors or whatever, and he'd enclosed a $200 check."
Savannah, 14, the only one of the girls who is allowed to have decorations in her hospital room, is surrounded by posters, get-well cards, balloons and stuffed animals at Children's Hospital Medical Center, Mrs. Long said.
Sabrina is still comatose and breathing with the aid of a respirator, Mrs. Long said, but the swelling in her brain has been stabilized.
