Everyone has a story.
Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person – someone well-known, successful, or influential, and asks, “What’s Your Story?”
By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
“I was in a wheelchair for three months. I had to learn to walk again.”
Not surprising to hear, coming from someone who sets off fireworks for a living. What is surprising is that his trauma had nothing to do with his work.
In 2018, he, his wife of 12 years, his stepdaughter, her husband, and their 18-month-old son were on Day 4 of a “dream vacation” in Canada. Quality time. Family time.
Until around five o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon. Until a stretch of road between Banff and Jasper. Until their packed minivan came around a very sharp, right-handed, blind curve.
“Somebody was in our lane (headed toward us) at a high rate of speed coming around the turn. They tried to pass four cars on the other side of the road. The first car in front of us swerved. The second car in front of us got side swiped. We were hit head-on. It killed my wife. It killed my son-in-law.”
Six people died, including four people in the other car.
The accident should have killed him.
“They thought I was dead.”
The survivors were pulled from their van, which was engulfed in flames. He and his stepdaughter spent three weeks in the intensive care unit. He had two broken arms. Every rib was broken. His right leg was “destroyed.”
His stepdaughter had a fractured leg, and internal bleeding. Miraculously, the baby was not hurt.
“Our families didn’t find out for a day and a half. Everything burned up in the car. No one had a way of knowing who we were.”
Their passports were ashes. He has an idea of who helped him, his stepdaughter, and her son get back home, but doesn’t want to be specific. They were first flown to Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.
“The Corporal salutes me and says, ‘Mr. Elkins, welcome home.’ I remember that day like it was yesterday, because we had been through hell.”
Curtis Elkins, who owns Pyromania Fireworks – one of Louisiana’s premier companies when it comes to producing fireworks shows – told me this story, and his story, during lunch at a place of his choosing – Frank’s Pizza Napoletana in Shreveport. Curtis had the Frank’s Caesar, with grilled chicken, and an unsweet tea. I enjoyed the La Mista salad with grilled chicken, and water to drink.
Curtis is 52 years old. But had his life ended on that Canadian curve six years ago, Curtis would have led an accomplished life. With a four-year nursing degree, he ascended to become Director of the Cardiology Division at LSU Ochsner in Shreveport, before retiring last year. Curtis never went back to school. He never took any advanced courses. He simply listened – and learned.
“I didn’t want to be a nurse that was just physically in the room. I wanted to know what the doctors were doing, and why they were doing it. I wanted to learn everything about my field. I got to where I was scrubbing in and assisting docs. Docs would trust me to do more. They would educate me more.”
But Curtis was never cured of the pyrotechnic bug which bit him as a child.
“One day I was playing with some Lady Fingers (small firecrackers). It had a damaged fuse. I lit it, and it blew up in my hand.”
So, while working in medicine, Curtis opened a fireworks stand in Bossier City. But he wanted to do more than sell roman candles and sparklers. One day, Curtis was introduced to a man who had been putting on fireworks shows in Natchitoches for 20 years. The man invited Curtis to come down and help.
“I fell in love with it from day one. It’s hard work. It’s dangerous. You have to know what you’re doing. But at the end, when that crowd cheers, you have a sense of humbleness and pride that you had the opportunity to make someone’s night . . . . Most of the time, you’re involved in someone’s special day, or a special event.”
Curtis started small. First, a wedding. Then, a show at a country club, which led to his first commercial contract – Christmas on Caddo.
Then came his big break – a call from the station manager at KTBS-TV.
“Pulling off what my team and I have done for the KTBS Freedom Fest project, doing eight plus shows across a 200-mile region, synchronized, on TV, with music, and coordinating that, I don’t know of another company that can say they do that . . . . (The show) has to start on time, and it has to end on time, because (the station) is going to the 10 o’clock news.”
“He gave me a shot, and I’ve been doing KTBS for more than 10 years.”
In fact, even though Curtis – at the request of Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry’s office – produced the fireworks show at the governor’s inauguration, local events are among his greatest accomplishments.
Yes, Curtis has found success, which didn’t seem possible in the days, weeks, and months (he used a cane for nine months and had physical therapy for a year and a half) after that horror-filled accident.
“I could have given up. I will be honest with you, there were times when I contemplated throwing in the towel. That’s just the honest truth. You go through what we did – you can’t walk. You lose a spouse. You lose a son-in-law. You go through the trauma of all that. But through my faith, and through godly men I had in my life who took me under their wing, I was able to pull it together.”
If his current business success isn’t enough of a happy ending, Curtis is remarried, and has a four-year-old daughter. One of those “godly men” in his life introduced Curtis to his now wife. The two first met for lunch.
“She looks at me and asks if I will bless our meal. Right then and there, I knew why I was there. When have you been out, much less with a female you’re meeting for the first time, where she feels comfortable to ask you to bless the food? I knew right then why my friend had been led to introduce us.”
Thinking Curtis had to get back to planning one of his 13 July 4th shows, or one of his 40 shows the week of July 4th, I asked my final question. As always, what is it from his life story that can be inspirational to others?
“Always trust in the Lord. Look at his guidance. Always be receptive to that, even though it might not be what you want to do, or you think is going to work. Honestly, his guidance in our lives is the only positive thing we have.”
Now those are words worthy of fireworks.
Do you know someone with a story? Email SBJTonyT@gmail.com.