(CNN) — This Thanksgiving holiday, Linda Moses is thankful just to be alive. The 54-year-old Texas woman was in a car crash in August with her son, his pregnant wife and a family friend. They were on their first family vacation together in the coastal area of Rockport when a texting driver veered into their lane and hit her son’s Chevy Tahoe head-on.
Everyone survived, including the driver of the other car. But their struggles were far from over.
Moses lost her job when she was unable to immediately return to work while recovering from a cracked sternum and ribs. Her son, Ryan, lost part of his right leg, ending his dream of entering the National Guard, a few weeks before he would have started basic training. His wife, Courtney, went into labor in September, almost four months early.
It’s been rough, Moses said, but amid the trauma, brights spots are starting to emerge. Her son received a prosthetic leg Wednesday and he starts physical therapy next week. Little Kaileigh, Moses’ first grandchild, has grown from 1 pound 10 ounces to 3 pounds 8 ounces in two months. Her parents held her for the first time last week and posed for a picture that Moses submitted to CNN iReport.
"Just the fact we’re all alive and that we survived despite the accident is a blessing," she said. "And to have Kaileigh — they didn’t give her much of a chance to live, and now she’s 2 months old. We have a lot to be thankful for."
Despite a year of economic, political and social turmoil, many Americans didn’t have to dig hard to find something they were grateful for on this most thankful day of the year. Among the submissions to CNN iReport’s "what are you thankful for?" assignment, common themes emerged: gratitude for family, pride in being American and relief at having a job.
Jean Lindsay is especially thankful for the opportunity to be able to work from her home in Geneseo, New York.
"As an older worker, trying to get to work outside my home is stressful in extreme heat or cold of winter; costs additional time and money to drive to another location; and is hazardous in negotiating snow and ice in winter," the 70-year-old iReporter said.
Luckily, she was able to find a job as a customer service representative, working from the comfort of a desk in her dining room. She works about 25 hours a week without paid vacation time or benefits. But at her age, it’s better than nothing, she said.
"I am truly grateful for companies that have a work from home component and I have seen first hand how it has benefited not only so many workers with disabilities, etc. but has benefited the company as well in garnering really dedicated workers."
Not everyone’s as lucky as Lindsay. But with unemployment rates hovering around 9% since the summer, Jannet Walsh is grateful just to be receiving unemployment insurance.
The 47-year-old photojournalist was laid off in September from her job with a newspaper in Minnesota. She had worked there for 11 months after moving from Florida to care for her mother, who died in October.
This will be her first Thanksgiving without her mother or father, but at least she’ll be spending it with family, she said.
It’s hard to stay positive with each rejection letter that comes in, she said. To keep her mind occupied, she edits video she shot on a trip to Ireland this year.
"That’s the best medicine for times like these, to be as creative as possible," she said. "I’m ready, willing and able to go back to work. I’m also very hopeful I’ll find an even better job than I was laid off from."
As bad as the political and economic landscape in this country might seem, iReporter Egberto Willies said there’s nowhere else he’d rather be.
"I am thankful to be in America and all those in America should be, too," said Willies, a naturalized citizen who moved to Texas from Panama in 1979 to attend the University of Texas-Austin. "Everyone in America has the ability to make a difference. I have the ability to make a difference."
