One moment changed a lot for Shari Neubauer.

She walked out of ImagineIF Library in downtown Kalispell just after 1 p.m. on Sept. 16, 2014. She crossed Third Street East toward her car. The street appeared to be clear.

“By the time I got to the middle, she came flying around the corner,” says Neubauer, 54, of Kalispell. “Never saw me, and I was right in front of my car.”

She caught a glimpse of a white-haired woman at the wheel before the sport utility vehicle hit her — “nicked” her, as Neubauer puts it. The contact was enough to cause Neubauer to trip on the curb and go head-first into a concrete wall. 

Neubauer describes it as “flying” into the wall. So far, she’s the only one who saw it happen.

Still recovering from injuries including a dislocated shoulder, broken arm and a concussion with brain bleeding, Neubauer is wishing for closure about the incident. 

She has one overriding question:

“Did anybody happen to see the champagne SUV?” she asks.

These days, Neubauer has an ongoing therapy regimen and some lifestyle changes to get used to. Her injuries hold her back from the active lifestyle she’s used to, and she doesn’t quite know how fully she can heal. 

Whatever happened on the road that day, the injuries can’t be disputed — they kept her in the hospital for a night. 

Neubauer went to the police and made a report in December. Kalispell Police Department Officer Doug Overman took her statement. Neubauer caught a glimpse of the supposed elderly driver and knew that it was a champagne-colored SUV that drove off.

“Little else is known about the suspect or vehicle,” Overman wrote in his report.

Without more evidence, there was little more that police could do.

There were two witnesses, but they saw only the aftermath and not the incident or vehicle. A mail carrier on his route stopped to help Neubauer pick up the scattered contents of her bag. She began feeling pain in her arm but told the carrier she could drive herself to the hospital.

The incident forced Neubauer to miss a scheduled appointment with a local television reporter, who eventually drove Neubauer to the hospital, where she learned the extent of her injuries. 

Since then, it’s been an uphill climb.

After two surgeries on her shoulder, Neubauer said that her carrying weight limit is five pounds. A plate and screws now hold the bones together and she might have limited movement indefinitely.

“I have a little grandson, and I can’t hold him right now because I can’t bear weight on it,” she said.

Her left hand still lacks feeling in some areas from nerve damage and she worries about an increased chance for stroke after the concussion with bleeding. There are good days and bad, she says.

One of the worst parts was having to sit out from her perennial role as a ski coach for the Special Olympics. She loved coaching the athletes, especially because one of them is her child. Once she’s able to ski again, Neubauer will have to be especially careful about hitting her head.

Now she hopes that somebody comes forward with information about that quick moment that had a lasting impact. What happened, she wonders, to that elderly woman who struck her with an SUV and just kept on driving? Did the driver even know the effect of that day?

“One minute your life is normal,” Neubauer said. “And then the next minute, it’s completely changed.”

Reporter Matt Hudson can be reached at 758-4459 or by email at mhudson@dailyinterlake.com.