Now the woman's family is reaching out to the community for help.

"This is the painting that she had just finished the night before her accident," said Rachel Kirk, referring to a painting of a single rose on a swirl of blue background. She's talking about her mother, Sally Kirk, and the work that she calls her "bliss" -- her artwork. "She's been painting as long as I can remember," Rachel said.

But it is going to be a while before the 67-year-old Kirk can pick up a paintbrush again.

A week ago, as she was walking to an appointment, Kirk was hit by a teenager driving a stolen car who was trying to get away from the police.

The family says she was hit straight on at about 40 miles per hour. Witnesses and officers didn't think she'd survive.

One witness told reporters: "It looks like she's probably not gonna make it, I mean she was just crushed."

Sally Kirk did survive, in spite of severe injuries to her spine, a head injury and numerous broken bones.

"The injury to the skull base, for example, is one that is very frequently fatal," says Dr. Jens Chapman, one of the orthopedic physicians caring for Kirk at Harborview Medical Center. She is currently in serious condition and was just removed from the intensive care unit on Wednesday.

Kirk's children, Christian and Rachel, know their mother is lucky to be alive. But they ache over the pain she is experiencing.

"Yesterday was the first day...she really saw me," says daughter Rachel, "and her first words were, 'Oh honey, I've been suffering so much.' "

Also difficult, is trying to make their mother understand how seriously she is injured.

"And she keeps asking to come home," says Rachel, "she wants to come home so bad. Every time she can talk she just says, 'Take me home, take me home, I'll get better at home.' "

But Kirk can't come home -- not for awhile. Her basement apartment, with its staircases and small quarters, won't accommodate the wheelchair she'll eventually need.

So Kirk's children hope the angels that are a recurring theme in their mother's art will come through for her now.

"Both of them, the boy that hit her and she, she needs her own angel right now," says Rachel, standing beneath a large painting her mother refers to as a "street angel". "So they both are being protected by this angel."

Kirk faces at least three months in convalescent care and could be in rehabilitation for as long as a year. During that time, she won't be able to paint or work.

You Can Help

If you'd like to send a donation to help Sally Kirk, give KOMO's People Helper, John Sharify a call at 206-441-HELP (4357) or e-mail him at peoplehelper@komo4news.com and he will tell you how you can help.

As for the 17-year-old accused of crashing into her, he is currently being in juvenile detention, charged with vehicular assault and may wind up facing charges as an adult.

Sally Kirk also has a Web site with some of her artwork at home.earthlink.net/~sallyhk.