When Patrick Rulli graduated from the University of New Hampshire this spring, he planned to take some time off and slip into "fun mode" before searching for a full-time job.

"For the first time in my life, I didnt have to carry a backpack full of books," the freckled, red-haired Barnstead resident said this week. "I was looking forward to just enjoying myself for a few months."

Those plans were going well for Rulli until July 6 -- two days after his 23rd birthday -- when he found out that his mother, 56-year-old Lyn Dyer, had been in a terrible crash after losing control of her car while driving to work and was clinging to life in the ICU at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover.

Nearly two weeks since the accident, things have gotten more complicated for Rulli and his sister, Anna. Instead of beach days, hikes and hanging out with friends, theyre worrying about gas money to get to the hospital every day, mortgage payments, and whether their mother -- a social worker and single mother of three -- will wake up from a coma.

"It's a lot to deal with when you're 19," Anna said yesterday. "It's hard to plan what's going to happen down the road because we don't know what kind of condition my mom will be in once she finally does wake up. We're taking it day by day, I guess."

Shortly before midnight on July 6, Dyer was driving through Warner, about 10 minutes from the Bradford boys shelter where she worked as a counselor. For reasons still unclear, she slammed on the brakes, overcorrected and wound up with her passenger-side door facing oncoming traffic. A moving truck slammed into the side of Dyer's Volvo.

Dyer sustained massive head injuries in the crash and the extent of damage to her brain is still unclear. Rulli said doctors told him she was lucky to be alive. Both of her lungs collapsed in the accident, and once in the hospital, she starting aspirating. She had fractured ribs, was covered in cuts and bruises, and was swollen from head to toe, Rulli said.

"I didn't know how bad it would be. We talked to the doctors and when we finally went it to see her, it was too much," he said. "I just lost it."

In the past week, Dyer's made some progress, Anna said. The swelling on her body has gone down, her color started to come back and two days ago, she opened her eyes. Still, doctors hoped she'd show more signs of movement, and she hasn't yet, the kids said. They're waiting on the results of a brain scan to tell them how she's progressing.

Without their mother, Dyer's kids are in a tough position, said Heath Gauthier, a close family friend who has been helping them with finances.

"They will not function very well without an adult, or somebody else there to help them. They're still children in a lot of ways. Real responsibility for them is not there yet," Gauthier said.

Neither Patrick nor Anna are employed. Anna said she was recently laid off from her job while helping care for a sick grandfather, and after the accident, Patrick filed for unemployment.

Between driving nearly three hours back and fourth to the hospital each day and sorting through medical and financial paperwork, they said they haven't had time to look for work.

Before the accident, Dyer worked two full-time jobs to help her kids pay for school and their house, which her ex-husband bought years before they divorced and has been very expensive to maintain, Gauthier said.

"Its a 200-year-old colonial home, and its always going to be a fixer-upper," Gauthier said. "She worked her butt off to make sure the kids could stay here and go through school in Barnstead without having to move."

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