Woman Missing For Two Years Completes Her Trip Home To North Carolina

HIGH POINT, N.C. (AP) -- Mary Joyce Howard, lost for two years as an amnesia-ridden accident victim in Oklahoma, had a tear-filled<br>reunion Saturday with her family back in her native North Carolina.<br>

Saturday, February 5th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

HIGH POINT, N.C. (AP) -- Mary Joyce Howard, lost for two years as an amnesia-ridden accident victim in Oklahoma, had a tear-filled
reunion Saturday with her family back in her native North Carolina.

"It's a miracle she's alive," said her younger brother,Reuben, who shared hugs with his sister and their parents during the reunion at the High Point Care Center.

A doctor and two paramedics completed their 18-hour trip with Howard from an Oklahoma City nursing home to the High Point long-term care facility about 5 a.m.

"I'm just glad that she's OK. It could have been much worse, even though this is bad enough," her mother, Naomi, told reporters. The last time she had seen her daughter was in November 1997. "When she walked out of my house that night, I figured she would call me because she always did. A lot of prayers were said for her."

Debilitated after major brain surgery following a hit-and-run accident in February 1998, Mary Joyce Howard spent the better part of the last two years as Jane Doe, but care workers finally
discovered her identity last month.

Wearing orange pajamas and clutching "Blackie" her teddy bear, she sat crossed-legged in a wheelchair. She never looked directly at the roomful of cameras and reporters at the center, but she was
aware of her surroundings. After her brother moved away from her side to chat with the media, she began to cry.

"Don't let Reuben go," she told his wife, Michelle. When he came back to her, she hugged him and patted his back. "I know," he told her as he wiped his eyes. "This makes me cry, too."

Her eyes lit up when he promised to bring her some chocolate candy the next time he came to visit.

"She always loved chocolate," Naomi Howard said.

Her brother said his sister knew who he was when they saw each other.

"It's very emotional seeing her in this state," said Reuben Howard, who at 34 is five years younger than his sister. "We're not used to seeing her this way."

Dr. Doug Cox and paramedics Dale Easter and Eric Shankles left Friday with their patient from an Oklahoma City nursing home. They
agreed to take her the 1,100 miles to High Point after her family said they could not afford to pay her way home. Her parents live in
the town of Elon College; her brothers lives in Burlington.

Cox said their patient mostly slept through the trip. They stopped several times along the way, including one time to eat at a Kentucky Fried Chicken.

"Mary Joyce, you have a wonderful family here," Cox told her before leaving. "You're so lucky. You take care of yourself."

Howard was struck in a hit-and-run as she walked along Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma. After the surgery, she lived in
a near vegetative state, saying nothing until July when she said she wanted to be called Joyce instead of Jane. But she spoke little
and was difficult to understand. Earlier attempts to match her fingerprints failed.

Her identity was finally unlocked during a recent hospital stay for pneumonia, when she suddenly remembered her Social Security
number.

Cox said at her best, Howard functions as a 10-year-old child, forming complex sentences and getting around her hospital room
without assistance. At her worst, she folds up into the fetal position and fails to acknow-ledge much of the outside world. She
will live at the care center for the immediate future.

"I think she will continue to improve with physical and speech therapy," he said. "But she will always need assistance."

Naomi Howard said her daughter has a teen-age daughter from a previous marriage who lives in the North. The family has not been
able to contact her, she said.