Fosstveit celebrated after auto accident
Taylor Road has two lanes that wind lazily through the most rural part of Cornwall. It’s normally a quiet section of town. But that changed on the evening of March 20.
About 30 cars lined up at the end of the street near the intersection with Otterkill. All but a few occupants waited inside. The exceptions stood on the side of the road with a sign that shouted, “Welcome Home, Kelsey.”
It was a message for Kelsey Fosstveit, a 2015 Cornwall graduate, who was often in our paper for winning art and essay contests. But she strayed from those fields in college and became a nurse. She is now working at Orange Regional Medical Center (ORMC) in Middletown.
But for almost two weeks in March, Kelsey was receiving care at ORMC instead of giving it. The turnabout was the result of a serious traffic accident in Woodbury.
Word of her release inspired the gathering of automobiles.
“We tried to keep our social distance,” one participant reported.
And the welcoming turnout may have come close to the current limit for public gatherings. It included friends, relatives, and volunteers from the Woodbury Fire Department who had responded to Kelsey’s accident. They learned about her homecoming from a neighbor, who is also a county fire official.
When the Fosstveit vehicle turned onto Taylor Road, the spectators pounded their horns and waved. It was as noisy as the night the football team won the state championship. And people in Mountainville were just as happy.