Ex-FinCom member on the mend after riding accident

Less than a month after shattering her back in a freak riding accident that included a terrifying encounter with a charging bull, Pat Johnson, an ex-FinCom member and a fixture at planning and zoning board meetings, is back home recovering and in surprisingly good spirits.

Pat Johnson

“I’m doing fine,” insisted Johnson in a recent telephone interview, her trademark sense of humor still fully intact. “Basically, as long as I don’t do anything stupid, [the doctors] expect all the pieces to knit themselves back together again.”

Remarkably, Johnson is not expected to require surgery — this despite enduring multiple fractures, including places where the bone actually broke clear off the spinal column.

The accident occurred on Friday, October 4, at a farm in Randolph, where Johnson, an avid horse lover, had ridden “hundreds of times before.” She had taken her horse, Cooper, down to the back field of the farm, past a herd of cows, when the bull inexplicably charged after them.

“I’ve been at this farm for 16 years and this has never happened before,” explained Johnson. “I freaked out; the horse freaked out. He threw me and I landed on the ground.”

At the time of the fall, Johnson didn’t realize how seriously injured she was and actually walked off under her own power before being driven to the hospital for x-rays. It wasn’t until many days later, after she had consulted with the doctors and was released from the hospital, that she came to understand how much worse it could have been.

“I’ve relived that moment many times in my head,” she said. “I wouldn’t say it’s nightmares, but I’m thinking it could have been really bad. I could have been paralyzed or I could have been killed.”

And while she remains in pain and still faces a long road to recovery, Johnson has been both amazed and deeply touched by the outpouring of support from the community.

“I’m humbled by it,” she said. “It’s amazing how many people have sent cards or called or stopped by. I’m just really gratified. I have so many friends that I didn’t know I had.”

Johnson jokingly said she expected to have more enemies than friends after her nine-year run on the Finance Committee, which ended in May after annual town meeting.

The truth is she thoroughly enjoyed her time on the committee, but she had reached her three-term limit and had wanted to take more time for herself anyway. She also, quite honestly, had grown sick and tired of saying “no” to so many worthwhile funding requests.

“It was extremely rewarding, but also very time consuming,” she said of her time on the FinCom. “And I just happened to come on at the start of this horrific downturn in the economy, and it was very painful for everyone on the committee to hear these completely justifiable, logical and reasonable requests and say, ‘No, there’s just no money.’”

The good news, according to Johnson, is that her predecessors had been wise enough to sock away money during better economic times, thus lessening the financial burden on the town over the last several years.

“There was a tremendous amount of money put into free cash,” she explained. “So while all the other towns were scrambling, Canton for a long time lived off that free cash. It definitely eased our burden during my tenure.”

“Canton, from a financial standpoint, is very well run,” she concluded.

Outside of the Finance Committee, Johnson also served for many years on the Canton Historical Commission and previously ran for the Board of Selectmen. She is also a vocal participant at annual town meeting and is a crusader of sorts against over-development.

“If I wanted to live in a city with dense housing, I’d move to Boston,” she said. “I feel very strongly that there’s a certain character that the town has now, and I’d like to see that preserved.”

For this reason, Johnson began attending planning and zoning board meetings and has emerged as a leading voice for responsible development and a champion of open space preservation.

“I know they shudder when I show up,” she said of the board members, half joking. “But I have received a lot of compliments from people, and I’d like to think that [my comments] have helped to make the bylaws stronger.”

A software engineer by profession, Johnson holds a master’s degree and a PhD in neuropsychology from Northeastern University and is a self-proclaimed “information junkie.”

She also has varied interests — and chief among them are horses and horseback riding.

“Being out in the woods and riding a horse is kind of like my church,” she explained.

Johnson said she fell in love with horses as a little girl and has ridden them for decades. She’s had her most recent horse, Cooper, for a little more than a year, and she raved that he is “so talented and so gorgeous.”

“I love him dearly,” she said, “and I don’t blame him for one second [for the accident] because if I had a bull charging at me, I’d have taken off too.”

Johnson said she recently had Cooper shipped down to a trainer in Rehoboth, and he is “happy as a clam,” even though she already “misses him terribly.”

Ironically, Johnson had hoped to do a lot more riding now that she no longer has to attend those marathon FinCom sessions, but she knows it will take a lot of time — and a lot of guts — to get “back in that saddle again.”

Johnson said it will take about three to four months for her back to heal, and she is already going a little stir-crazy being at home with little to do.

“After three weeks of not doing anything, I’m just exhausted,” she said. “It’s amazing how fast your strength just leaves you.”

As for her future in public service, Johnson said it is only a matter of time before she joins, or runs, for another town board or committee.

“I used to know everything that was going on in town,” she said. “From the Planning Board to the Conservation Commission to the Capital Planning Committee, I knew what was going on and I miss that. I don’t have that information at my fingertips anymore.”

Johnson said she may pursue a spot on the Capital Planning Committee, or perhaps the zoning board as an alternate.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do yet, but I definitely will be involved again,” she said.

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=22865

Posted by Jay Turner on Oct 31 2013. Filed under News, Town Government. Both comments and pings are currently closed.