'An Honor to Care for Him' - The Goldman Family's Story

When Rebecca and Justin Goldman were at Shepherd Center with their son Graham, a 17-year-old completing rehabilitation for a traumatic brain injury, one feeling buoyed them — joy.

For someone unfamiliar with Shepherd Center, that may read like a typo. It’s hard to imagine feeling joyful in the wake of such tragedy.

But for Rebecca and Justin, and hundreds of other patients and caregivers who’ve experienced recovery at Shepherd Center, joy was just part of the process. Of course, they also experienced grief and anxiety during Graham’s four-month hospital stay. But with the support of their family and friends, church community, hospital staff, and the other patients and families on their hall, they were able to delight in the small victories — at first, Graham’s small movements and words, at times slurred, but spoken all the same.

The Goldman family, made up of Rebecca, Justin, and their three children — Graham, Jake, and Shelby Kate, lives in Madison, Mississippi. They’re an active bunch, enjoying traveling and camping together. Graham was especially active, competing in tennis, football, track, and cross-country for his high school. He took up cycling about three years ago.

In cycling, Graham found drive, passion, and a welcoming community. He enjoyed road and gravel races with his dad — and the sport brought the pair closer together. Justin had coached many of Graham’s sports teams as he was growing up, but through cycling, he began to see his son as a peer.

“That's when our relationship really began the transition from more of a traditional father-son to almost more of a friend,” he says. “I mean, we got really, really close.”

Cycling helped Graham build confidence and endurance, as well as a new support system. The weekend before he sustained his injury, he completed a 60-mile race. But then on April 28, 2025, he was in a serious biking accident, resulting in a traumatic brain injury.

Right away, Graham’s parents knew they wanted to get Graham to Shepherd Center for rehabilitation. A friend from church had been to Shepherd a couple of years prior, and they felt the hospital would provide Graham with the care he needed to succeed, despite being five hours away from Madison.

Rebecca’s parents, who are retired, stepped in to care for Jake and Shelby Kate, promising her that “they would be there as long as they were needed,” she recalls. After weeks in the ICU, she and Graham made the journey to Atlanta, where Graham began his rehabilitation, and she settled in at the Arthur M. Blank Family Residences. Thanks to a supportive company allowing him to adjust his schedule, Justin was able to travel to Atlanta frequently throughout Graham’s recovery.

“That was a really trying time for me because there was no rest,” Justin remembers. “I would come back and work hard and try to take care of our other kids, and then I flew [back to Atlanta] weekly because I couldn't afford the time to drive. I had to instantly get in the game and be refreshed and ready to stay in the room with Graham.”

When Justin was at Shepherd, he got involved in Graham’s therapy sessions. He says that encouraging his son in therapy wasn’t much different than cheering him on in sports or cycling — with Graham’s athlete mindset, Justin knew he was capable of overcoming hard things. Working alongside Shepherd Center’s therapists helped on that front, Justin says.

“[Graham’s therapists] were phenomenal ... both on the therapy side and as well as the joy and the smiles and the morale champions that they were to keep us uplifted,” Justin says.

And while Rebecca gives Justin credit for being Graham’s “biggest cheerleader” in therapy, he says his wife played a much larger role in their son’s recovery.

“My wife is very humble and kind. She carried the lion's share, of course,” he says. “I thank the Lord for giving us resiliency and energy [to care for Graham during his recovery]. I look back at it now, and I'm like, ‘How in the world did I do that? And how in the world did my wife do that, when I wasn't there?’ She was carrying that burden by herself.”

Rebecca stayed by Graham’s side throughout his recovery. Friends from back home often came to Shepherd to visit, sometimes dropping in because they said they were in the area, only for Rebecca and Justin to learn they were visiting Chattanooga or Birmingham. They were willing to drive the extra hours just to support Graham and his family.

Rebecca often spent the night with Graham in his hospital room, learning from his nurses and therapists how to care for him medically.

“The staff, the nurses, and the therapists were so great to teach us — to empower us to be able to do some of the things so that we were able to help him instead of always having to call a nurse or a therapist for help,” Rebecca says. “It was an honor to care for him in the ways that we were.”

Now, Graham is back home with his siblings and back to school part-time. He does outpatient therapy each week and continues to improve day by day. Rebecca and Justin aren’t sure what the future may hold, but that hasn’t stopped Graham from making plans of his own.

“We actually went back to Shepherd in the last week of December, and he saw all of his favorite therapists there that he thinks are all legends, and he loves them dearly,” Justin says. “He saw them, and he said, ‘I want to be a physical therapist. I want to be a PT, and I want to work at Shepherd.’”

Written by Erin Kenney