I feel so thankful, blessed, and amazed that God's divine intervention turned what in all likelihood could have been a devastating tragedy for my little girl... She and I worked at the same healthcare facility. She held a restorative therapy rehab assistant position there, and I held a unit nurse position. I worked 7am - 7pm shifts, and she worked 9am - 5 pm shifts, so we were never able to ride to work together. I was in the middle of my morning med. pass on this day, when I was paged to the director of nursing's office. Irritated, I locked up my med cart, and headed to the office, fully intent on telling them that I was running behind and didn't appreciate this interruption. As I stepped into the office, I knew something was wrong. The assistant director of nursing was the only one in the office. She was ghostly pale and visibly shaking. She asked me to sit down. I refused, demanding to know what was going on, She said, "Kathy, there's been an accident,,," My knees buckled.I couldn't focus on anything she was saying for a moment until she said, "The State Highway Patrol informed me that the O.D.O.T. workers were working on the overpass bridge close to where the car landed. "Landed, Debbie...LANDED!?! What does that mean?" She said, " Kathy, she's alright! I'll have the other rehab assistant take you to pick her up." What a huge sigh of relief...until we reached the accident site.... who could have survived THIS?!? The interior of the car was full of broken glass, part of the roof was caved in, 3 wheels were hanging a distance from the car, yet still attached by stretched out coiled springs. I saw the ambulance with flashing lights and sirens blaring rushing my baby to the hospital. "Oh my God...they told me she was okay" I sobbed. The patrolman assured me she appeared to be okay physically, but thought she was in shock. Well turns out he was right! As I walked through the ER entrance, I could hear the bossy little thing barking orders at the staff, and I whispered, "Thank you, Lord. There's that spunky mouth!" The O.D.O.T. foreman came to the hospital to check on her condition. He witnessed the accident. He said her front tire flew off her car causing her to lose control and bounce on top of the retainer wall, then rolling eight times. He said it was just luck that no others cars were near her, because I-75 was always busy that time of day, He said his crew ran down to help her, and chuckled as he said, "She was barking orders at us, too. We wanted her to stay in the car until she could be assessed, but she was having no part of that. When her car finally came to a stop, she was in the rear passenger seat. She was somewhat lucid, because she said she needed to call her workplace to let them know she would be late." Well, amazingly, she was discharged from the hospital a few hours later. The only injury they found was a tiny scratch on the palm of her hand. She returned to work 2 days later. Her car was so mangled that the GM Moraine Truck and Bus Plant put it inside the plant and used it as the exhibit for Seat Belt Safety Week. The irony was that my daughter always refused to wear a seat belt because it wrinkled her clothes. She no longer worries about occasional wrinkles. She always buckles up for safety now! On the day I took my daughter to remove items from the car, it was clear to me that the patrolman was right, she was in shock at the scene of the accident. She became very emotional. I noticed her glance down and stroke the tiny scratch on her palm as she said, "Mom, the only thing I remember is screaming, Jesus save me, and I didn't mean save me from the accident, but to save my soul because I knew I was going to die." I said, "He's not finished with you yet, Baby!" I'm so happy that I took my camera to the salvage yard to take pictures of the car. In order to lift her spirits, I told her to put on her best smile. "Best smile!?!" Yep. This fine auto we're looking at is headed to the GM showroom floor, and you're gonna be the Price Is Right-esque model to point out its fine features... and that was all it took to lift my preciously hateful baby's spirits back up... GOD IS GOOD!
|