Cody “Monster” Mastin smiles along with his mother Machelle Poindexter as they enjoy a drive by birthday party in front of their home this past weekend. Cody has been battling back from severe injuries following a tragic car accident in November where his girlfriend Lindsay Locker was killed.
GREENFIELD — A steady stream of jeeps, motorcycles, cars, a truck with monster wheels doing a burn out, and even a farm tractor rolled past Cody Mastin’s home Saturday afternoon. The people in the vehicles were honking horns and yelling happy birthday wishes to the 19-year-old who sat in a wheelchair at the end of his drive way soaking it all in.
Knowing how close the family came to losing Cody in a horrific vehicle accident back on Nov. 26, Cody’s family decided to surprise the young man with a “drive-by” birthday celebration this past weekend.
“He’s definitely a miracle,” his mother Machelle Poindexter said. “I just want to see my kid smile.”
That was something Cody did a whole lot of this past weekend.
Poindexter and her friends, who are part of a Jeep group, put the drive-by birthday celebration event together to help Cody, who is still going through intense therapy, celebrate his special day.
“A few months ago we didn’t know if we’d even have this chance so we’re so grateful,” Poindexter said. “We figured this was a good way to make the term ‘drive-by’ become a positive things.”
Following the “drive-by,” the group loaded up Cody and headed to Heartland Camp grounds to continue the birthday party with cupcakes and cookies.
Cody is entering his 8th month of recovery since the tragic crash which left him with severe brain injuries and took the life of his girlfriend, Eastern Hancock High School senior Lindsay Locker, 17, of Knightstown.
While Cody, a 2023 Greenfield-Central High School graduate, has made major strides in his recovery, his mother says there is still a long road ahead for her son, who understands he’s been injured and is in recovery mode.
“He understands he was in an accident and he hurt his brain and that he’s got to do this therapy to get back,” his mother said. “He does understand that, but there is somethings he doesn’t understand and he doesn’t really have much short term memory right now so we’re working on that.”
Their goal is to one day see Cody walk again and have as full of a life as possible.
“It’s going good,” Poindexter said of her son’s rehabilitation. “We’re working on the sitting position with him now so he’s starting to learn to sit up again.”
Cody is taking physical, occupational, speech and other therapy classes in an effort to wake up his brain and remind him how to do the basic things of life.
“He’s having to relearn everything and it takes time,” his mother said. “The little simple things we do don’t come natural to him anymore since he has severe brain trauma so we’re just trying to see how far we can go.”
Poindexter noted her son, who she calls “Cody Monster,” due to his love for monster trucks and scary movies has improved both physically and cognitively by “leaps and bounds,” since the first days following the crash where he was fighting for his life for several days.
“He’s going great,” his mother said. “I remember when he was first hurt I couldn’t wait to hear him say ‘mom’ and now he says ‘mom, mom’ all the time.”
While shortly after the crash, doctors told Cody’s family that they had better brace themselves for the possibility he may never talk or walk again, his family and friends remained prayerful and hopeful.
“The key word there was ‘may’ because [doctors] don’t want to give any thing definite, but he’s surprising the doctors,” Poindexter said.
The family is constantly getting MRI and CT scans to see how Cody’s brain is doing, and officials have told family members they were surprised after seeing Cody sitting up and talking with medical officials during a recent scan.
“They said, ‘We’re not gonna lie, we didn’t know if this was going to ever happen,’” his mother said. “I was like, ‘I’m glad he’s proved you wrong.’”
While Cody is working hard on trying to learn how to walk again, doing so for limited amounts of time via a harness at the rehabilitation facility, he’s having some issues with his left foot.
“Doctors are looking into that, but they’re trying to get him into the mindset of what direction they’re trying to get him to go,” she said. “He gets on the treadmill there and walks about a half an hour at a time.”
Recently, the family took Cody to the Hancock County 4-H Fair, and, while he was in his wheelchair, his mother said he had a great time meeting people and getting back out into the community.
“He was so excited to be there and people were so good to him,” she said. “Nobody rushed him, but you could tell they wanted to come and say hi to him so I’d nod and let them know it was O.K.”
The family noted that they’re very thankful for the help and support they’ve received from the community to get their home ready for Cody to live in. His mother said they are doing well enough that they are in a good place and don’t need any more assistance.
“We got so much support and it was so overwhelming that we were even able to donate some of things to other people who have needs,” Poindexter said. “We’re hoping he will make a full recovery so we can give and donate all we’ve been given back to people who need it.”
Following Saturday’s birthday celebration, on Sunday the family took Cody to the Indianapolis Day of the Dead convention, a gathering for scary movie fans, something Cody and his mom are both into.
“It’s a horror convention and he’s gotten into that over the past couple of years and a lot of characters who have been in horror movies will be there,” his mother said. “Cody loves the comedy movie ‘Scary Movie’ and the he loves the character ‘Doofy’ so he wants to meet him and get a picture taken so we’re going to do that. That’s the kind of fun personality my son has.”
The only thing the family asked for following Cody’s birthday celebration was for people to remember the Locker family and keep them in their prayers.
