Earlier that year, I had been attending Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho...yup I'm that old!) and learned that my Dad had been called to serve as a Mission President in the Michigan Detroit Mission. The date we were to be in Detroit was July 1, 1995. My parents sold their home, several belongings and put the rest in a storage unit for the next 3 years. They would spend a few days in the MTC near the end of the month to be 'trained' and then set apart by Elder L. Tom Perry.
Now I will back up a bit. My parents were going to be leaving early to go to Utah to tend their oldest (and only at the time) grandchild for a few days. Of the seven of us children, the oldest two were already married and living in the USA, my brother, who had just turned 18, was also in the MTC for several weeks learning another language in preparation for his mission to Philadelphia. (I don't know if it is still the same, but children of Mission Presidents could go earlier than customary age of 19.) So, the 4 of us (Patti-almost 20, Micki-16, Honey-14 and Reecy-13) would follow, just after my parents left, to drive to my grandparents in Cardston, AB (about 8 hours away) and then the rest of the way (about 10 hours) to Logan, UT. (The other girls had finals to finish too.) It may seem like a long way to let your teenage daughters venture on their own-but we were used to the long distance driving. (Just after moving to Regina, SK my siblings and I would travel back to Calgary on our own-about 8+ hours away- several weekends to visit friends we missed.)
Just before my parents left we gathered in our home office for a family prayer. My Mom first read Doctrine and Covenants 31:3-5. These were scriptures about missionary work-that of course seemed relevant-but at the end of these verses it says "wherefore your family shall live." I distinctly remember thinking "that part had nothing to do with anything she had just read-so odd." Little did we know how literal that would be for our family! My Dad then said the prayer, blessing us by the power of the Priesthood that we would be protected on our journey. The night before we left we stayed at our Stake President's home just kitty corner from our now sold home. The next morning, we left Regina around 1pm and headed west on the #1 TransCanada Highway in our 1991 Toyota Camry.
About 3 hours into our trip was when it happened.
I was driving. Honey sat 'shotgun'. Micki sat behind me and Reecy behind Honey. Both Reecy and Honey had fallen asleep. It really was a lovely day-skies clear, warm-but not too hot. Now, in the rural areas of Canada there are no 'on' ramps to get onto the highway-just flashing lights, 'stop' signs, warnings and rumble strips. We were traveling on the highway about 110km/h (about 70 mph) westbound approaching an intersection on the crest of a slight hill that we did not have to slow down for. Everything happened so fast. All of a sudden there was another vehicle approaching on my right-going what seemed to be as fast as we were-and then we hit and spun.
Everything for the next few seconds seemed to go in slow motion.
We were thrown into a counter-clockwise spin and we rotated at least 3 maybe 4 or 5 times-the same scenery went by in the windshield several times. (It was before airbags-so there was nothing obstructing the 'view'.)
First of many miracles...we stopped facing the same direction we were traveling (west) in the painted median. By the time we stopped spinning there were already 6 or 7 vehicles pulled over on my side of the road. Later, I realized we could have been hit several more times by other vehicles in either direction.
Another miracle...as soon as we were still Micki, in obvious shock, started screaming, "she's dead!!! Reecy's dead!!! she's dead!!!" I turned to look at Reecy. Her head was resting on the edge of the door, where the window once was, with her hair covering most of her face, not moving at all. I immediately felt a wave of peace come over me. I knew she was okay.
Micki then jumped out of the car and ran into the highway picking up books and shoes that had been thrown out of our car onto the road. Then I turned to Honey. Her window was gone too. She sat up, looked at me with glazed over eyes and then blood, LOTS of blood, started running down her face. I yelled at Micki (several times) to sit down and calm down. She eventually put her head between her knees. Reecy started to stir. She was holding her pillow to her face and kept saying, "I want to go back to sleep." I yelled at Micki to talk to her and keep her awake!
Another miracle...the first person to come up to our vehicle came to Honey's missing window. "Can I help you-I'm a nurse!" She asked me if I had any towels or clothes she could use to put on Honey's head where the blood was now dripping everywhere. I almost took of my shirt. Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to tell her there were white towels in the trunk. As she disappeared to get the towels, the second person who came to our vehicle said he was a doctor! Honey, over and over, kept saying "I need a blessing. My neck. I need a blessing." By now, there were several people offering their assistance. Another guy, hearing Honey's plea, offered "I'm a priest?". All I could think to tell him was, "that's not what she means." I just kept talking to Honey-trying to keep her calm and not moving. Oddly, I remember twice telling the nurse "but we were supposed to sell this car." She told me not to worry about it, but I told her again. I asked how the 'other people' were and she told me they 'were fine.' A trucker approached my now opened door with his phone for me to use. I will never forget the ghostly, sick-looking look on his face-or the young man-head to toe in leathers-that had the same look on his face. (I now think they may have gone to the other car first.) I accepted the use of the phone-ours had wires pulled out of it so I knew it wouldn't work.
Another miracle...my planner had 'exploded' from under my seat and the papers were everywhere under my feet-including the phone numbers of our Stake President and my sister's-where my parents were. I somehow recalled my sister's phone number and tried calling a couple times with no luck. (I had been dialing Idaho's area code 208 instead of 810 for Utah.) I also completely recalled our Stake President's phone number and called and spoke with him. I told him we had been in an accident, they were taking us to the hospital in Maple Creek and that I could not get a hold of our parents. And then I hung up. By now there was a large camera trying to get close to our vehicle. (There must have been a lot of traffic still moving through. The trucker had said to someone that another rig had pulled across the eastbound lanes at the bottom of the hill blocking traffic from that direction. An RCMP (like highway patrol) yelled and banged on the side of an RV that had come up pretty fast and close to us on the passenger side.) Micki and Reecy were already out of the vehicle somewhere, by then a man with a huge blanket was hovering over Honey and said, "It's gonna get loud." They got slowly got Honey out of the car. I don't remember if they tried to put a "c-collar" on her or not-but she kept saying, "it hurts, it hurts." Then there were paramedics at my door. They had a back board and wanted me to swing my legs around to slide out on to it. My knees were burning-but I could move. I told someone that I had two rings in the trunk (mine and Ben's wedding rings) and that I would not go without them. The green jewelry bags were quickly found and given to me and I got on the board. Somehow I had an oxygen mask on and was being slid into an ambulance. Honey was there -still pretty out of it-crying, "am I going to die?" I don't remember the trip to the hospital, but I do remember watching the lights pass by on the ceiling in the hospital. A nurse put a "c-collar" on me. It was the hard plastic kind and it hurt really bad. (I later realized my seatbelt had 'burned' off several layers of skin across my chest and neck.) I didn't keep the collar on very long.
We eventually got settled into a hospital room. All four of us in the same room. Poor Reecy just kept throwing up and throwing up. Her bed was right beside mine. Micki and Honey were facing us on the other side of the room. Reecy had the worst concussion of the two that took out their windows with their heads. Besides my seatbelt 'burn', I had punctured my left knee and cut up my right. Micki (completely unscathed) came into our room-not in shock anymore-and said that Mom and Dad were on their way. What a relief! (But for some reason-all night, as I could not sleep-I was worried they would get hit by a train in the dark.)
Another miracle...Micki told me that both she and Reecy had NOT had their seat belts on! We always wear our seatbelts! Micki was awake for the whole thing and should have been thrown with great force into the back of my seat pushing me into the steering wheel but she said that when we hit the other car it felt like someone pushed her down into her seat.
Micki also told me that the person in the other car had died. Killed on impact. I was surprised that I felt no emotion when she told me that. Not that I didn't care-I think it was a blessing. Everything kept running through my head, over and over and over. I could not sleep at all. I don't remember eating anything though I'm sure I did.
An RCMP visited our room trying to get statements from everyone. Poor Reecy was still so sick-I told him to leave her alone-he said he would come back tomorrow. I remember the nurses wheeling us into another room trying to catch the evening news and pictures of the accident scene. I felt pretty good considering what had just happened a few hours earlier. We went back to our room disappointed we didn't see much on the TV.
Honey was in a lot of pain-but coherent. She had broken her collar bone in two places-on either side of where her seatbelt held her back. The weather outside quickly got fierce. We could hear the thunder. Two men came to our room. I recognized one of them who lived in a town about an hour and a half outside Regina. I had been to his house once with my dad. I want to say it was Brother Green or something like that. They both administered to us-and blessed me with peace and that my "mind would rest from the continual replay of the events of the day"- I hadn't said anything to them so I knew Heavenly Father knew our, specifically my needs. What a blessing! Earlier I was able to call my then fiancé Ben from the hospital. He thought I was joking. I told him we were 'okay' and didn't get into much detail.
Two of my aunts (Aunt Ginny and Aunt Jayne) travelled through the horrible weather from Cardston-about 5 hours away to be with us. It was SO wonderful to have them there to be with us. The nurses let them stay in our room for a long time. When it got really late they went to sleep in the back of their (covered) truck in the scary weather! I don't think I slept at all.
The next morning my Mom and Dad arrived-not even hit by a train! They told us that the Stake President had called them and told them that we had been in what he thought was a fender bender, but that "Honey sounded to be in some distress." My parents immediately called the RCMP, but found themselves in some kind of electronic loop. Once they got through to an actual person they said that yes a vehicle answering the description of ours had been in an accident and that "4 had been taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, but unfortunately the other party didn't make it." Upon hearing that, they had a better sense of just how serious the accident had been. They said they fell to their knees and once again Dad blessed us by the power of the Priesthood. They found someone to watch little Jordan, rented a mini-van and drove all night- 12-14 hours-I'm not sure how long.
We were SO glad to see our parents! They went with the RCMP to get the rest of our belongings out of the car and get more information about the accident. The RCMP commented that our vehicle should be in a Toyota commercial. Because it crumpled just the way it should, he said it looked like it had been in a 25 mph accident... The other car like a 100 mph accident. The impact had actually bowed the axels of the other car!
Another miracle...while several other things flew out of the car as we spun, we had four sets of scriptures (quads) in the back window that did not so much as shift. Several weeks later my Mom told me what a miracle that was...I will borrow from my sister Honey Hunt's blog -
"It wasn't until a few weeks after we arrived in Michigan that we realized the significance of our 4 Quad Scriptures in the back window not shifting in the accident. We were at a zone conference with the missionaries watching a fleet (car) video where a sheriff was talking about how he's only had to unbuckle one dead man from his seat belt. It was because he had been going 25mph, slammed on his brakes and a kleenex box that was in the back window flew forward and severed his spinal cord. Whoa. Micki had a Work and the Glory book resting on one of the scriptures that flew out the window and down the highway. These quads didn't move. Reecy and Micki had stayed in their seats although physics would predict that they should have slammed forward (into the front seats) with impact tripling their body weight. And those 10 feet of skid marks, very well saved us from being broadsided."
Another miracle...My dad said I must have stood on the brake-it was pushed and remained all the way to the floor. I don't know how I could have possibly braked so hard since somehow my knees got really banged up-I couldn't have been so stiff. We had laid down less that 10 feet of skid marks-I don't know what happened but we were truly blessed-we could have easily been the other party who didn't make it. We were saved. It was hard for me to be in a vehicle for a while. I cried and cried laying in the rented van-worrying my Dad would get in an accident during our next 15+ hours of travel. He didn't.
I was able to go through the Logan Temple for the first time 4 days later.
My Dad was set apart as the Mission President of the Michigan Detroit mission by Elder L. Tom Perry.
Ben came to visit me in Logan.
I turned 20 on June 28th.
We reported to the mission field on time and most of us in one piece, July 1, 1995.
Many miracles...
Okay-this is probably the longest post in the history of Blogger but I do have pictures..*be warned*..some of them are a little disturbing...at least to me they are...still...
Honey's stitches in her head-pretty long gash.
Honey's collar bone sling
Cleaning out my knee-left a lovely scar.
Reecy's glasses she was wearing cut her face.
Crumpled just the way it should...
Notice the windshield stayed intact and the hood that could have easily come through the windshield, right at my throat-level, stopped right at the glass!
Tire circles...
Jaws of Life cut the post between the doors to get Honey out.
His blue car...half gone. He had no ID on him. We found out he was from Ethiopia and had only been in the country a few months. His buddy came back upon the scene after he did not show up at a "tree planting meeting" a little way away. He completely disregarded, or possibly did not understand the flashing lights, rumble strips and need to stop. I was sad the police were not going to notify his family immediately. I was told, by the RCMP, that it is customary for an Ethiopian to not eat until the body of a loved one is buried. He guessed it could be a couple of weeks before that would happen.
And below, my sibs at the MTC.
