Staff Writer

Ron and Jo-Ellen Grondin said their son, Kevin, has spent a lot of time quizzing them lately.

Answering questions about the most obvious details of their lives delights them – it’s a sign that Kevin Grondin, 19, is regaining his memory and recovering from brain injuries sustained in a May 8 accident.

The recovery was threatened about 9 a.m. Monday as Kevin was driving across Scarborough Marsh on Route 1 and collided with truck owned by Sidney-based Dube Environmental.

According to police, witnesses said Grondin’s 1996 Chevrolet pickup truck crossed the center line while headed south. The pickup hit an empty tanker truck driven by Ryan Dube, 20. The road was closed for about two hours, but neither driver sustained life-threatening injuries that killed his best friend.

“I remember blacking out by Len Libby. Then I remember somebody trying to carry me,” Grondin said of Monday’s accident.

Grondin’s family attributed his decision to drive his truck to the effects of brain injuries sustained in the accident that killed Steven Delano. He had ignored instructions from his mother to stay put as she got ready to run errands, although he followed similar instructions from his father earlier that morning.

“He was just going, trying to prove he was OK,” Kyle Grondin said of his younger brother.

But Kevin Grondin is not OK yet, even as he prepares to march with Scarborough High School students in the commencement ceremony Sunday night at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

“People think he was just fine, and he wasn’t,” said Ron Grondin. Kevin sustained injuries to the frontal, temporal and occipital lobes of his brain. The injuries led to stays of two weeks each at Maine Medical Center and New England Rehabilitation in Portland and put a future enlistment in the Air Force on hold.

Delano was killed while driving a car struck by a tanker truck on Payne Road as he turned from Scarborough Downs Road. He and Kevin Grondin and their dates were on their way to the Gorham High School prom when the accident occurred, police said.

Last Friday, Kevin Grondin came home from New England Rehabilitation, Ron Grondin said. He spent his first few days at home alerting his family to every movement he made and had stayed put early Monday when his father told him needed to get ready for work.

Ron Grondin said he was looking forward to his first full week of work since the accident. In the two weeks his son was at Maine Medical Center, his father slept in a nearby bed.

Sometime after Ron Grondin got on the road, his wife also told her son to lie down while she got ready to go out.

This time, Kevin Grondin said he grabbed his keys.

“It was just like a dream afterward,” he said.

Family members saw Kevin drive away, which set off a search by his mother and brother while his father, now near Exeter, N.H., got a frantic phone call.

“I raced out of bed,” said Kyle, who is 21 and works night shifts. “This is my little brother and I love him to death.”

As he searched in one direction, Jo-Ellen Grondin set off in another. Kyle Grondin said he thought his brother was headed for Tractor Supply on Route 1 near the marsh because he and his mother had talked about getting supplies for the family farm there.

As he got closer to the store, Kyle said he saw the emergency vehicles headed for the accident scene. Before he reached the scene, he said he felt certain his brother had been in an accident.

“I felt like I was not going to be able to see him again,” said Kyle Grodin, but he was able to get close enough to the scene to know Kevin was alert and talking.

Ron Grondin said it was not the influence of any medications that made his son go out Monday or caused the accident. His son had been weaned off pain medications at Maine Medical Center and surprised therapists at New England Rehabilitation when admitted there because of the lack of medications he needed.

“He has not had any drugs,” Ron Grondin said. He called owners of Dube Environmental to check on Ryan Dube’s condition and let them know what his son has been going through.

Tuesday night, Ron and Jo-Ellen Grondin said they saw more encouraging signs of their son’s recovery as he began to watch TV and ask them about their lives. Jo-Ellen Dube said the questions come because Kevin knows he is alive and not dreaming.

“I thought it was all a dream until last night,” Kevin Grondin said Wednesday.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219