Up With the Good Foot: How Inpatient Rehabilitation Helped Fran Move Forward
September 2, 2026
By: Jamie Jager
Fran (photographed on the right), a former inpatient rehabilitation patient at Trinity Health Ann Arbor, smiles for the camera alongside her daughter and granddaughter, celebrating a return to the activities and moments that matter most.
Fran Bernard has always kept busy. A mother of three, she ran her own trucking school for 30 years, published a book, and wrote for industry magazines. At 72, she was still working as a secretary at a local elementary school. Then, on a January morning, a gap in the pavement sent her to the ground, and the woman who took care of everything suddenly needed help getting out of bed.
The fall happened at work, while Fran was walking a visitor across the school grounds to unlock a gate. She hit her knee first, then her face on the bricks. Her coworkers ran to her side, and within minutes, they had called an ambulance and alerted her family. She was taken to Trinity Health Ann Arbor.
Even while in the hospital, Fran's instinct was to reassure others. While her principal sat with her in the ER, Fran told her not to worry and that she would be back at work by Monday. Her X-rays told a different story. She had fractures in her left foot, her right ankle, her right knee, and her right shoulder.
Over the next few days, the reality of her situation settled in. A brace prevented her right knee from bending, and things she had never had to think about were suddenly beyond her. Getting into a wheelchair took help. So did getting washed up and dressed. Fran sums up her early stretch there in one word: “Scary.”
“All these things I've never had to do before,” she said. “That was really awkward and frightening.” Then the team on the inpatient rehabilitation unit at Trinity Health Ann Arbor entered her life. Over the coming weeks, they would help her move from a wheelchair back to her own two feet.
Her days began around 8 a.m. with help getting dressed, followed by an hour of physical or occupational therapy. A few hours later, the therapists would return for a second session.
While the whole team was helpful, Fran says three team members were especially important to her recovery: physician assistant Lindsay, and therapists Kaitlin and Christine. “I don’t know how I would have gotten through my month at the hospital without those remarkable women at my side,” she said.
Lindsay checked on Fran every day, monitored her care, and offered support and encouragement. Kaitlin helped her regain movement in her arm and shoulder, while Christine worked to strengthen her legs so she could walk and eventually climb stairs. One of Christine's lessons stuck so well, that Fran still repeats it to herself: “Up with the good foot and down with the bad.”
The support went beyond rebuilding her strength and mobility. A therapist named Brenda talked with her whenever she felt low, reassuring her that what she was feeling was normal and that she was making progress. Fran found humor in the hard days, too. She joked with the team that she could “try out for the Clydesdales,” since she made about as much noise as they did coming down the hallway in her big, square recovery shoes.
Fran, a former inpatient rehabilitation patient at Trinity Health Ann Arbor, is photographed inside the hospital following a serious fall that resulted in multiple fractures and a significant loss of mobility.
Approximately four weeks after her fall, Fran finally returned home. Her recovery was not over, though. Six months later, she continues outpatient therapy with Trinity Health Probility Physical Therapy to restore her strength and mobility, now focusing on her right arm. “It’s about 75 to 80 percent better,” she said.
On the hard days, Fran reminds herself how far she has come. “I think back on all the things I couldn't do that I can do now,” she said. “And that is very helpful.”
Now Fran has returned to the life the fall interrupted. She recently celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary, and she is resuming her role as a school secretary. Looking back, she credits the Trinity Health team with getting her home. “I couldn't have done it without them,” she said. “I wouldn't have known where to start.”
To thank the people who helped her walk out the door, she plans to make a batch of her homemade pretzels and bring them up to the rehab unit. “I’m going to make them for Lindsay, Kaitlin, and Christine,” she said, “because they were so sweet and so helpful.”
Interested in learning more about inpatient rehabilitation?
If you or someone you care about is recovering from a serious injury or illness, inpatient rehabilitation can help rebuild mobility, strength, and independence.