DERRY — Six months after a car crash in Andover, a local social media food influencer has made it home.
Joey Calcavecchia, 36, also known as The Roaming Foodie on Instagram and TikTok, has spent the last few months in a rehabilitation facility following a four-car accident on May 14.
“It will continue to be a long road for Joey but he is showing improvements every day,” said Jenna Calcavecchia, Joey’s sister, in an update on his Go Fund Me page. “Having a traumatic brain injury has been very difficult for Joey and our family but we hold out hope that every day things get a little bit better.”
After completing in-patient rehabilitation in October, Calcavecchia was able to return to his childhood home in Derry to continue with outpatient rehabilitation, his sister said.
Calcavecchia was hospitalized in Tuft’s intensive care unit and was treated for multiple injuries, including multiple fractured ribs, two collapsed lungs, fractures in his facial bones, and swelling around his brain.
He was the operator of the last car in a pileup on Interstate 93 northbound near exit 42. A a deer had run out on the road suddenly, which caused the crash. Her brother was the only person seriously injured in the accident.
The Roaming Foodie was created after Calcavecchia moved to Boston to pursue a career in food marketing. He found a passion for food photography and created his online persona as a way to highlight the food scene in New England in the fall of 2016.
The Roaming Foodie account has 300,000 followers shared between Calcavecchia’s Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube profiles.
Even through his recovery, The Roaming Foodie pages have continued to post, albeit not at the same volume as before, posting about local eats once every few days, as opposed to his daily schedule before the accident.
Jenna Calcavecchia wrote that his main focus is completing his recovery, but added her brother was anxious to get back.
“Joey’s goal is to walk again and we believe that with the therapies and all of your prayers he will get there,” she said in the update. “Joey cannot wait to be out and about doing what he loves, being The Roaming Foodie and helping support local businesses.”