She was a typical Garden City kid, playing at the playgrounds, doing homework at the Garden City Public Library, and having fun with her family and friends at backyard barbecues and the annual street fairs on Seventh Street. Growing up in the Village as Loriann Adipietro, she enjoyed a comfortable life and the promise of a bright future thanks to her education in the Garden City Union Free School District. She was as any Garden City High School graduate, looking forward to starting her academic career at C.W. Post and embarking on the road to achieving the dreams she, her family, and her community had for her.

Loriann Adipietro had a loving and supportive family and the promise opportunity provides. She attended her classes at C.W. Post daily, engaging herself in intellectual pursuits to prepare herself for a successful career. Then one day, in one single moment, her life was dramatically altered. She'd been in a terrible car accident. Adipietro suffered serious head injuries. Her family waited breathlessly as she underwent major surgery to treat the damage to her head. The news from the doctors after the surgery was any parents' nightmare -- she was in a coma. It was uncertain that she would ever emerge from this state of existence somewhere between life and death.

Weeks went by and still she was not out of the coma. A month passed. Months came and went and still she remained unable to open her eyes or to speak to the family, friends, nurses, and doctors who kept vigil waiting for her to return. Finally, after months in a coma, she awakened. Conscious, but physically weakened from months of not using her muscles and the damage done to her body in the accident she was unable to do even the simplest of tasks. The doctors were not able to confirm that she would regain functioning and ever walk again.

Her college plans and career pursuits were postponed as she focused on a long and arduous road of intense physical therapy and rehabilitation. During the course of her work to regain the use of her body, she heard about a program called Long Island Riding for the Handicapped (LIRHA). She was told that LIHRA is a theraputic horseback riding program located in Syosset, which, under the leadership of Madeline Buglione, offers physical therapy and rehabilitation on horseback free of charge to its students. Because the program is free and can only accommodate 20 students at one time, the waiting list is quite long, but Adipietro was determined to try anything that might help her one day return to the strong and physically capable young woman she was before the accident.

Finally, there was an opening for her at LIRHA. When she first began the program she told staffers and volunteers that she really found it impossible to believe that she could actually ride a horse as even the simplest physical tasks were so difficult, and sometimes beyond her abilities at that point in her rehabilitation. She spent years working with the dedicated individuals at LIRHA. With the same diligence she was taught by educators in Garden City to apply to her studies, she worked to regain her strength. She held herself with greater confidence on the horses and began to be able to ride more and more independently.

As Rita Syracuse of LIRHA told Garden City Life, "Loriann is a bright and very remarkable woman. She learned how to ride on her own and became quite an experienced rider. She didn't let life get in her way."

While quite a different graduation than the white gowns and tuxedo jackets and pomp of the Garden City High School graduation or the cap and gown she'd planned to have from C.W. Post, Loriann Adipietro earned the toughest alumni status most of us could imagine. She graduated from the program and demonstrated to the world and, most importantly, to herself that she has not been the victim of tragedy, but the victor of circumstances. Not only could she walk again, but she was able to walk down the aisle in June of 1998 and became Loriann Adipietro Conway.

Conway has expressed her willingness to share her story with her neighbors and friends in Garden City as she has just celebrated her one-year wedding anniversary and is enjoying a whole new life she never knew she'd enjoy. She is now an expert horseback rider, a wife, and a productive and successful individual with more goals and dreams for the future, which remain limitless.