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Helper to the elderly hurt in accident
By JIM ROSS, Times Staff Writer LECANTO -- Kelly Willis is accustomed to helping people. But now she's the one who needs help. Miss Willis, 41, travels from home to home giving people full pedicures. She doesn't cater to the rich and famous; her clients are typically senior citizens who need help caring for their feet. But it will be a long time before Miss Willis can assist any of them again. She was involved in a serious vehicle crash July 17 and now is home nursing a broken left leg, a right shoulder that is broken in two places and a broken right collarbone. "I can use any help I can get from anybody, financial or even coming by with a hot casserole dish," she said Monday. Miss Willis said the wreck occurred about 9:10 p.m. July 17 on Grover Cleveland Boulevard. It was raining heavily and she was riding her motorcycle eastbound, just five minutes from home. Miss Willis said a bicyclist was riding westbound in the middle of the road. "When I saw him it was just too late to avoid him," she said. "He collided with me." The cyclist, identified as Greg Eastes, 38, of Homosassa, died either at the scene or shortly after the wreck, Miss Willis said. She said the Florida Highway Patrol blamed him for the crash. She spent two days at Seven Rivers Community Hospital and now is at her Lecanto home, where she spends days on the couch. Friends come by to help, but life is difficult: Her injuries make walking, even with crutches, impossible. Miss Willis has a 20-year-old son but he works out of town and can't help much. Her parents are deceased. "I'm just trying to get help wherever I can get it," she said. Money is another issue altogether: She has plenty of medical bills but no medical insurance to help cover them. "I just couldn't afford it," said Miss Willis, who is self-employed. The insurance on her motorcycle covers just the cost of repairing her vehicle and the medical bills of the other party.
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