Five months after a stabbing at Good Vibes Bar & Grill, regulars throw a benefit for the survivors

A band played slow country songs and regulars wore "Good Vibes Strong" T-shirts on Sunday afternoon as Good Vibes Bar & Grill raised money for people who were hurt there in a knife attack in May, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Four people were stabbed at the bar at 2121 Buckingham Drive on May 6. Richardson police shot and killed the attacker outside after he refused repeated orders to drop the knife, according to the News. The Sunday benefit, which also marked the bar's sixth anniversary, featured a raffle and silent auction for guitars, coolers and kitchenware.

The event poster said all proceeds would go to bartender Felicia Cansino and patron Reuben Blackwell, two of the four people injured.

The recoveries

The other two survivors talked with the News about where they are now.

Harold Stemper was stabbed in the chest and his heart was badly damaged, he said. He had a minor stroke, flatlined twice and went into surgery that night. His doctors now call him the "miracle man," he said.

He has lost peripheral vision on his right side, wears two different pairs of glasses and went back to work about a month ago, shortly before his 64th birthday.

"It was all God," Stemper said.

Garrett Ledger, 43, of Garland, said he was stabbed seven times but had all his surgeries in a single night and recovered at home with the help of a therapist he was already seeing. Coming back to the bar the first time "was surreal," he said.

Stemper, Ledger and Blackwell had jumped over the bar to pull the attacker away from Cansino, according to the News. In an August interview, Cansino told the paper she was in physical therapy twice a week to regain movement in her left hand and hoped to return to the job she loves. She and Blackwell attended Sunday's event but were not interviewed.

Why they come back

Two regulars who were in the bar that night said they still feel the effects. One said she spent months looking over her shoulder but keeps returning because the place feels like home.

"It's like Cheers, where everyone knows your name," Michelle Lanahan told the News.

The bar is co-owned by Donna Townsend and Jay Smith.

Sources

The Dallas Morning News