As I stared at the message from his wife Rachel, the words “catastrophic accident” and “severed spinal cord” replayed in my mind, impossible to grasp.
Although Charlie and Rachel had moved from Phoenix to Oregon two years earlier, they remained our closest friends.
News of the accident left us stunned; we stumbled through our days in a daze, our hearts aching for them.
An Unbreakable Bond of Friendship
Our friendship began eight years ago when Charlie and Rachel wandered into one of my yoga classes in Scottsdale. What began as a shared love of yoga grew into a deep bond of friendship.
Together, we enjoyed home-cooked meals, double dates, hikes and endless conversations around our dinner tables. During that time, Charlie became a mentor to our teenage son, and he introduced our family to pickleball long before it became a national craze.
Charlie and Rachel were more than just friends — they were our chosen family.
A Passion for the Outdoors
As a teenager, Charlie loved the thrill and freedom of four-wheeling, and that passion followed him into adulthood through moves to Utah and Oregon.
It was his escape, a chance to venture deep into the forests and mountains, far from his demanding career as a stock trader and teacher of investors around the globe.
“As someone who tends to get chained to my desk for too many hours of the day, it was a fun and freeing way for me to explore areas that I wouldn’t be able to do normally,” says the 53-year-old.
During the winter months, he would attach a plow to his ATV and clear snow from his driveway and sidewalks, and he did the same for many grateful neighbors.
While he enjoyed the excitement of exploring the outdoors, Charlie was always level-headed, carefully weighing the upsides and risks — just as he did while trading stocks, playing sports or making decisions for his family.
The Day Everything Shifted
On Oct. 22, 2023, Charlie and his friend Casey ventured to the sand dunes in Christmas Valley, Oregon, for one of their four-wheeling adventures.
After a morning of exhilarating rides and lunch, they decided on one final trek before heading home. Charlie, ever cautious, paused at the top of a towering sand dune to survey the safest route down.
Suddenly, the ground gave way. A sand avalanche sent him and his ATV tumbling down the ridge, rolling three times before landing on a rock-hard basin below — the crushing weight of his 700-pound ATV pinning him to the ground.
Casey raced down the dune, adrenaline surging through his body, and somehow managed to roll the ATV off Charlie.
He frantically pulled out his phone to call for help, only to find he had no phone service.
In a desperate attempt to find a cell signal, Casey climbed to the top of the dune, and after several tries, he finally got through, pleading with the dispatcher to send an air ambulance.
As Charlie lay motionless on the ground, he knew that these might be his final moments.
“I couldn’t feel the lower part of my body, and all I could see was the beautiful blue sky above me,” recounts Charlie. “I thought to myself, if this is my final day, I have no regrets. I have lived a full and complete life filled with love and joy, and that was comforting.”
When Casey offered to call Rachel, Charlie pleaded with him not to call:
“I wanted her to enjoy a little more time without this huge burden because I knew my injuries were very serious.
“We always did such a good job of letting each other know how much we loved each other. We had just celebrated our 30th anniversary the summer before, and there was nothing I needed to say to her. She knew I loved her. I had a truly perfect life. I had so many wonderful friends and experiences, and I was okay to have this be the end.”
A Life Forever Changed
After being airlifted to a hospital in Bend, Charlie underwent surgery. The fall had severed his spinal cord, broken 12 ribs, severely injured his shoulder and left him paralyzed from the chest down.
The doctors told him he would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Competitive pickleball, golfing, leisurely walks with Rachel and their two Westies — all vanished in an instant.
When family, friends and clients heard about the accident, they responded with an outpouring of donations, meals, and well wishes that lit up Charlie’s phone around the clock.
Surviving this treacherous accident was nothing short of a miracle.
Why was his life spared? This is a question Charlie asks himself often and he’s determined to find the answer.
“Life is so much more challenging now,” Charlie explains. “No one really understands what someone who is paralyzed at my level must go through. Going to the bathroom is a major undertaking and challenging. Just putting on my pants is a major achievement, and I need a lot of help.”
It takes over an hour, with the assistance of his wife, to get him up and in his wheelchair each morning, and in the evening, another hour to get back in bed.
“Some days, the pain is so severe that I can barely move or breathe, but on better days, I manage to overcome it,” he says.
Charlie’s nickname is “Bear,” a nod to his fierceness and strength to pull through the toughest of times.
Throughout the ordeal, his lifeline has been the love and support from his wife who has worked tirelessly with healthcare providers and insurance companies to fight for the best possible care for him.
“Rachel had been by my side since I arrived at the hospital, and I told her on the day of the accident to clear out our accounts, change her name, and run away to a different country for a new life to avoid the upcoming deluge of medical bills,” recalls Charlie. “She simply smiled and said, ‘No way!’”
Within three months of the accident, despite recurring infections and severe pain, Charlie returned to the work he had loved for more than two decades— publishing The Kirk Report, his weekly stock market analysis, which gave him a renewed sense of purpose.
“Work is joy for me,” says Charlie. “It really has meant everything to know I still have this community to go back to and work for — my labor of love and something I was always meant to do.”
Today his business is thriving, with upgraded services and an enhanced report format.
Unwavering Love and Determination
Last summer my husband and I visited Charlie and Rachel, unsure of what to expect.
What we witnessed was an unshakable, loving bond between husband and wife that has grown even stronger amidst extreme physical and emotional pain and immense loss.
“Rachel has been a true champ through it all, but she has it far worse than I do, given all of the work she has to do just to take care of me, and do everything else I used to do for us,” says Charlie.
“As someone who loves being independent, and doing my own thing, I’ve lost that independence and that’s really tough — tougher than the nerve pain and disappointment for the life I thought I was going to live at this chapter of my life.”
Yet, Charlie pushes forward, regaining his independence through weightlifting, grueling physical therapy and learning to drive with hand controls. He’s also renovating his home to make it easier for him to bathe, dress and prepare meals on his own.
Each small victory, like putting on socks by himself, marks the steps he’s making toward rebuilding his strength and autonomy.
Reconnecting with Dear Friends
As we gathered around their dinner table, as we had so many times before, we shared food, drinks, tears, and, yes, even laughter, as we reminisced about our countless outings together.
Charlie openly recounted the events of the last few months, but one story really struck a chord for my husband and me.
Just days before his accident, Charlie arrived early to play pickleball and was alone in the parking lot:
“I sat in my car, in the quiet, thinking to myself how truly lucky I have been. How wonderful it was to have my wife, my life, my work, my friends, and being able to have the time and money to play pickleball that morning…How it took so long to get to this point of my life, and how truly fortunate I was.”
These words now echo with even greater meaning:
“Honestly, I still feel very much the way I did on the day of the accident. That it would have been totally okay with me if that was my last day and end of my journey.”
When the earth gave way beneath Charlie that October afternoon, it didn’t just shatter his body. Like the sand avalanche that sent him tumbling, it swept away decades of careful planning—the financial security he had built, his dreams of an active retirement, the future he and Rachel had mapped out together. In seconds, the ground beneath their entire life crumbled.
Yet from these shifting sands, Charlie and Rachel have rebuilt their lives on the firmest foundation of all — unwavering love, gratitude and determination.
Time Is Short
We’ve learned so much from our dear friends. But there’s one piece of advice that Charlie has repeated to us many times since the accident:
“Don’t put anything off!
“Do everything you can while you’re capable of doing it. There are many things that must now be eliminated from my bucket list forever that will never be achieved because I waited. I thought I had the time but I was wrong.
“If you want to learn anything from me, I hope you take this lesson to heart and take action in the coming year. Big action! More than you ever have before.
“No more excuses…because you don’t have as much time as you think you do.”