Peggy Napoli has never let anything stop her from doing what she loves, not even a wheelchair.

The 58-year-old Crystal Springs woman got into the business of creating life-size yard sculptures and fountains more than 16 years ago. Eleven years ago, Napoli was injured in a four-wheeler accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down.

“My son and I were riding on my property,” she said, “and as we went up a hill, one of them flipped on me. It slid backward, turned sideways and rolled. It messed up my spinal cord.”

Her son, now 29, was also injured, but without major complications.

Napoli said she never questioned whether or not she would continue with her business, Four Seasons Garden Art, which she purchased from a Jackson couple who started it some 60 years ago.

“The couple did their own sculpting, their own molds, their own paintings and casting,” she said Saturday as she and her husband, Gene Sills, displayed their wares at the 32nd annual Fall Flower & Garden Fest in Crystal Springs. “They stayed and taught me how to do all of that when I bought the business from them. I learned to do a lot of the artwork myself.”

Before the accident, Napoli said she was involved in every aspect of the business and, for the most part, that hasn’t changed.

“You do have limitations,” she said. “But I’m in all phases of the business. We do a lot of custom work for people and a lot of fountains and birdbaths.”

And Napoli still creates some of her own pieces — pottery, patio benches and statues of all shapes and sizes. The image of the fleur-de-lis is on plenty of her works — she’s a faithful New Orleans Saints fan.

Though she doesn’t call herself an artist, she did teach herself to paint on the sculptures.

“I like the painting,” she said.

The work, overall, is “wonderful therapy,” she said. “I have painted my way back to sanity a number of times through the years.”

Another aspect of the business she enjoys is meeting people.

At Saturday’s show, wheeling around in her chair, Napoli greeted everyone she saw and answered every question that was asked, even the ones about her accident.

“Everybody who has asked about my accident,” she said, “they tell me about another four-wheeler accident, and it’s usually more tragic than mine. A lot them are about children who were killed or people whose necks were broken.”

The Fall Flower & Garden Fest at the Truck Crops Experiment Station is the largest home gardening show in the Southeast, says the website msucares.com, operated by the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Average attendance is 6,000 people.