The speaker was in a wheelchair, visiting Semiahmoo Secondary to show Grade 12 students the consequences one mistake can have.

The timing of the words was no coincidence – the grads rehearsed their commencement ceremony that Tuesday in June, and were gearing up for their grad banquet, set for just four days down the road.

The speaker was there to remind the students that, too often, such celebrations end in tragedy.

Nearly a month later, reflecting on the day while in the living room of her South Surrey home, grad Kelly MacDonald said from her own wheelchair that it was “the most ironic day of my life.”

Barely an hour after listening to the speaker, the 18-year-old was seriously injured in a dramatic collision, when the vehicle she was in was struck as it turned left off of 176 Street onto 24 Avenue.

MacDonald, a passenger in the car, was on the impact-side of the crash. Her pelvis was shattered, the ligaments in her stomach torn and her sacrum broken.

Police said last week that the driver, an 18-year-old Abbotsford woman, faces a charge of failing to yield in connection with the crash.

MacDonald’s cap and gown were in the car, but her dreams of leading a line of her peers to their seats on the stage at Chandos Pattison Auditorium – as she had just practised – were gone.

It was a tough pill to swallow, said a still-disappointed MacDonald. Even tougher was having to miss her grad banquet, which took place a few days later.

Despite the disappointment, and the frustration that comes with having to stay in bed most of the time, MacDonald can see a positive side.

“I’m really thankful I’m not dead,” she said.

As well, the surgeon who put her pelvis back together “fixed me up perfectly,” she said.

“He stabilized my pelvis so well that he didn’t have to put screws in my back.”

Doctors have told MacDonald she will recover, with good odds of getting close to 100 per cent. She still can’t put any weight on her right foot, is in constant pain and needs help with day-to-day tasks.

The damage to her pelvis won’t prevent her from having children, but she will never be able to give birth naturally.

MacDonald’s mom, Marlene, said she is just happy to have her daughter home. She knows other parents who haven’t been as fortunate.

MacDonald will learn later this month when she might be able to start using her right leg. It will mark the beginning of months of physiotherapy.