$5,000 Fall

On a suspension bridge over Chasm Falls in Estes Park, Colo, seven hikers were enjoying the moonlit scene one night in 1933. Suddenly the bridge collapsed. Down into the swirling water 40 ft. below plunged Sisters Adele and Virginia Fowlkes of Denver, one Marion Scilley from Loveland. Last week on behalf of Sister Adele, who received severe leg and spine injuries from the fall, Sister Virginia appeared before the House Claims Committee in Washington, retold her experiences:

". . . [With such] forceful stimulation as this tragedy one's mental processes respond rapidly. I had given up all hope of recovery. I sensed the situation of snowy waters, consequent cramps, the rugged rocks which I at that moment was bumping, the bottomless whirlpool, the 'hellespontiac' current of the waters and the boulders against which my head would surely be dashed. . . . Just then the spray lifted my glasses off my nose, thank goodness, for then at least my eyes would have a chance to hold the pennies to pay Charon. . . . [Then I learned] that St. Peter had rejected me, for I was on the surface again and being rushed with the current."

Moved by Sister Virginia's eloquence, the committee favorably reported a bill awarding Sister Adele $5,000 damages.

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