Chimney-Fall Girl Says Accident Opened Her Eyes

This story goes out to anyone with a case of the Mondays: That 12-year-old girl who survived a fourteen-story fall down a chimney by landing on collected soot appeared yesterday at a music festival in the courtyard of her Bethune Street building and sang the spiritual "Deep River." Afterwards, Grace Bergere had some inspiring words for a NY Post reporter: "Everything is a bit more intense now that I'm still alive. I appreciate things that I didn't before. You see the beauty in a lot of things that you didn't - like walking in the park. I used to walk around with my eyes closed." Bergere dislocated her hip and fractured five back vertebrae in the 100-foot fall, which occurred as she tried to show a visiting cousin a view of the city from the roof. After a month in the hospital, she finally returned home two weeks ago: "I still have back pain, but I'm able to walk."