The biker stopped his bike when he saw something that everyone else had missed for six days.
Taylor “Ghost” Morrison, 64, was riding by himself on a dirt road in the Colorado Rockies when he shouldn’t have there.
His GPS had died, so he had chosen the incorrect road while looking for the motorway.
But that wrong step would save 8-year-old Tina David’s life, even though the whole state had ceased looking for her six days before.
It was hard to notice the purple backpack in the ravine, which was 40 feet below the road. Every search group had passed through here. All the helicopters had already flown over.
But Ghost saw something that no one else did: small handprints on the dusty rock face that led down, just as a Harley passed by at 30 mph and the early sun hit it just perfectly.
He had been riding for 43 years, through the war in Vietnam, his divorce, and the death of his son. But he wasn’t ready for what he would find at the bottom of the ravine.
Tina was still alive but unconscious. She was curled up next to her mother’s body, which had died sheltering her from the crash.
The story had been all over the news. Dr. Linda David and her daughter Tina went missing when they were looking at colleges where Linda might teach.
The police found their car on the main road, but there was no sign of a struggle or where they had gone. The FBI got involved because they suspected it was a kidnapping. People thought the worst.
The search teams had looked over an area of more than 500 square miles. Volunteers had walked every trail. After six days, the official search was called off. The news had moved on to other tragic things.
But Ghost didn’t hear the news. He had just done his yearly solo ride, which he did every year on the anniversary of his son Danny’s death in Afghanistan.
Danny, a 19-year-old Marine, killed after an IED went off while he was helping to get people out of a school. Ghost rode to remember, to sorrow, and to feel close to his son.
The handprints on the rock were small and forlorn. Ghost could see where someone had tried to climb up and failed, then tried again.
Every step down injured his knees, which were 64 years old. But those handprints could have been Danny telling him to come forward.
Tina was wearing her mom’s jacket, and it looked like a tent around her.
She had been living off the water bottles and snacks in their car, which her mother had taught her to ration before she died.
Linda’s body told the truth: she had been harmed in the crash, pulled Tina to safety, and used all of her strength to keep her daughter warm.
Ghost said, “Hey, little one,” as he checked Tina’s pulse. It was weak yet steady. “I’m going to take you out of here.”
Tina’s eyes opened and shut. “Are you… “Are you a police officer?”
“No, honey.” “I’m just a biker who lost my way.”
“Mommy said to find someone who looks like a daddy if we get lost.” You look like the dad of someone.
Ghost’s throat tightened. “Yeah.” Yes, I was someone’s dad.
He almost died on the way back up. Tina was probably just 50 pounds, but at his age, he shouldn’t have been able to carry her over a 40-foot ravine. Still, Ghost did it, one handhold at a time, with Tina clinging on to his back like Danny used to do when he gave her piggyback rides.
Tina kept saying, “My mum is sleeping.” “She has been sleeping for a long time.” She told me to be brave and that someone will come. She said that angels would send someone.
“Your mommy was right,” Ghost murmured, pulling them both onto the road.
Tina needed medical help right away, but he couldn’t get a signal on his bike. She was thirsty, maybe even cold, and she probably had a broken arm, but she hadn’t spoken anything about it. Ghost got her on the bike and covered her with his leather jacket.
“Have you ever ridden a motorbike before?”
Tina shook her head a little.
“Now you are.” We’re going to move extremely swiftly to get you help. “Okay, you hold on to me tightly.”
“Like giving a hug?”
“Just like hugging.”
Ghost has never been more careful when driving. He thought of the costly cargo that was holding on to his waist at every bend. He could feel her grip increasing tighter as he sped up. She was humming a song that her mother must have sang to her.
Twenty miles away is the nearest town. The guy at the petrol station dropped the phone when Ghost escorted Tina inside.
“Call 911,” Ghost told them. “Hey, this is Tina David.” The girl who is not there. “She’s still alive.”
“But… but they stopped looking,” the attendant said in a low voice.
Ghost shrugged and said, “Well, I didn’t.” “Now go ahead and call.”
Everything went wrong after that. FBI agents, police officers, and EMTs. People wanted to know how, where, and why. Ghost made them a map, told them about Linda’s body, and then watched as they flew Tina to the Denver Children’s Hospital.
“You’re a hero,” said one FBI agent.
Ghost shook his head. “I just made a mistake at the right time,” he said.
But the story got out of hand. Biker Finds Girl Who Was Missing When Everyone Else Gave Up. There were a lot of news crews outside of Ghost’s small flat in Denver. His phone rang a lot. The Savage Sons MC, the club he abandoned when Danny died, came to help and keep him safe.
Tank, his old president, said simply, “Brother, you need us.” “You saved that kid.” We can help you deal with this mess.
No one saw what happened in the hospital coming. Tina wouldn’t get go of Ghost’s leather jacket. The nurses weren’t able to take it from her. “It smells like the angel who saved me,” she kept saying.
Dr. Patricia Reeves, a child psychologist, told Ghost to come. “She got hurt.” You are the one who makes her feel safe. She needs to know that you’re real.
Ghost had been away from them since Danny died at a hospital. But he left for Tina.
The hospital bed was full of gadgets and tubes, and she seemed so small in it. When she saw him, she smiled for the first time since he saved her.
“You came back!”
“I said I would, didn’t I?”
“Mommy’s really gone, isn’t she?” Tina asked in a quiet voice.
Ghost sat next to her bed and held her little hand with his large one. “Yes, my love.” Yes, she is.
“She saved my life.” She used her body to shield me when we crashed. The deer caused the car to go off the road. Mommy got hurt when we stopped falling, but I didn’t. She let me go. She provided me all the food and water I needed. “She sang to me until she couldn’t sing anymore.”
Ghost’s eyes were on fire. “Your mum was a hero.”
“Like you?”
“No, little one.” “Your mum saved you,” she said. I just found you.
Susan David, Tina’s grandmother, came from San Francisco that night. She was a little woman, maybe 75, and she looked at Ghost with sad, grateful eyes.
“People say you climbed down a ravine and brought her back up.”
“Ma’am, I—”
“She died by herself, but she knew Tina would be found.” She had faith. “That faith gave you an answer.”
Susan pulled out a picture. Linda was dressed like a soldier. “She was in the military.” A doctor who lives in Iraq. She always said that the ones that looked rough were usually the friendliest. She would have been happy that you were the one who found Tina.
Ghost was always there for Tina as she grew better over the next few weeks. He read to her, and when he read books for kids, his harsh voice becoming softer. He taught her how to play cards. He was there for her nightmares, her mother’s funeral, and her physical therapy.
Tina asked Ghost to say a few words at Linda’s burial. He was a tough old biker in a suit on stage. He said:
“I didn’t know Dr. Linda David.” But I know what she did. She saved her child in the end, even though she was hurt and dying. She shifted her body so that it would take the hit. She gave Tina her clothes, food, water, and the last bit of warmth she had. That’s not the only way a mother shows affection. A fighter gives up that.
Tina made it obvious that she intended to take Ghost’s bike to the graveyard. The Savage Sons MC, which comprised 47 motorcyclists, kept one small girl safe on her last trip with her mother. A image of a tiny girl in a pink dress riding a Harley with big bikers behind her at a funeral went viral.
But the real shift didn’t happen until six months later. Tina was living with her grandma and getting treatment. She was getting better little by little. She wanted to have a serious chat with Ghost.
“I want to learn how to ride,” she remarked.
Susan said, “You are eight.”
“Dirt bikes,” Tina said with certainty. “Ghost said he would teach me when I’m older.” But I want to get started right immediately. “Mommy would want me to be brave.”
Susan saw the ghost. “There is a motocross program for kids.” “Lots of supervision” means it’s quite safe.
Tina asked Susan, “Why?”
Tina remarked, “Because when I’m on Ghost’s bike, I feel close to Mommy.” Everyone’s heart broke. Like she’s still watching out for me. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to find another kid who is lost one day. “Like Ghost found me.”
They started with a little dirt bike that Tina could barely ride. Ghost would come every Saturday to teach her how to manage the machine, respect it, and keep her balance. The Savage Sons all worked together to make sure she had the safest location to learn.
“Why are you doing this?” Susan asked Ghost one day. “You don’t have to give us back.”
Ghost saw Tina walk through a small obstacle course with a very focused look on her face. “My son Danny died in Afghanistan trying to save kids. Kids he didn’t know and kids he wasn’t responsible for. He did it because it was the right thing to do. Danny would be there for Tina and teach her.
Susan whispered, “You’re giving her back her strength.”
“No, ma’am.” She’s given me back my purpose in life.
It’s been three years. Tina is now 11 years old and a great junior motocross racer. She has a lot of trophies. But the most important thing is that she now supports changes to search and rescue. This small girl with a loud voice always wears Ghost’s leather jacket, which is too big for her. She gives speeches at conferences.
“Six days,” she tells others. “I lived for six days because my mom died to save me and because a biker made a mistake. How many other kids are out there praying that someone will make the right incorrect turn?
The same picture always ends her talk: Her at 8, next to Ghost and his Harley, both of which were covered in dust from the ravine. He is looking at her like she is the most important thing in the world, and she is wearing his jacket.
The David-Morrison Search Protocol, which is named after Linda and Ghost, is now used in six states. It tells search teams to send motorbike riders to hard-to-reach regions because sometimes all you need is someone who can see handprints on a rock while going slowly.
Ghost legally adopted Tina last year, with Susan’s permission. There were 200 motorcycles at the event. Because of his narrative, they all joined search and rescue teams.
“You saved me,” Tina said in her adoption statement to the judge.
Ghost said, “No, kiddo.” “We saved each other.”
Every Sunday, Ghost and Tina ride their bikes together. She rides her junior bike, and he rides his Harley. They move slowly down the mountain paths, always on the lookout for signs that other people might miss. They have found three lost hikers and one kid who ran away in the past year.
The Savage Sons made Tina a patch that says, “Junior Member – Angel Spotter.” She says, “Ghost taught me that angels can ride Harleys and wear leather.” And sometimes, going the wrong way is the proper thing to do.
Every week, Linda David’s grave gets new flowers. Different motorcyclists, men and women who have never met her but know what it means to love and give up something, always bring them to her.
What about Ghost, though? Now he has a picture in his wallet. Tina, too, not just Danny. He calls them his two babies. One taught him about giving up something, and the other taught him that God sometimes gives you another chance to be a father.
Even if it starts with taking the wrong turn on the worst day of someone else’s life.
