We've been busy packing our things and watching the weather for our trip to Kansas later on this morning. The first day of winter, its solstice, arrived right on schedule and with it came moisture in the form of the white stuff falling down from the skies here in this neck of the woods. We were just getting started with our packing when Mike had the idea of going into town and trying to pick up a cheap coffee maker to take with us and leave back in Kansas at my home there. Made good sense to me so off we went to our local upscale thrift store run by the area's hospice.
As things go with us sometimes, we got sidetracked on our initial intent to just run in, see what they had, and pick something up quickly. We stopped first at the local art gallery and took a look at a Raku starfish that we both had admired back in the early fall. Then we wandered on down the street to the hospice store and ended up spending more time there than we had originally planned. Hey, they found us a coffee pot in the back room that hadn't been put on the shelves yet but needed a moment or two in order to test it to see if it worked properly. "No problem!" we said and we just looked around the store while they helped to check it out. 45 minutes after we had left our home (that's only 5 minutes away in the first place) we headed back towards home. Before leaving town, we stopped at a McDonald's that it is close by and got an ice cream cone to take with us as we headed back to the house. The clock had moved quickly while we were in town and both of us knew we needed to get back to the house and start packing once again.
It was when we crossed Hillcrest and headed east onto Locust Road that we first saw the problem. A car was alongside the road and parked on the shoulder and a man with a cell phone in his hand had a look on his face that showed there was a problem. As we pulled over to the side and rolled our window down to ask if he needed help was when we saw the real problem. A car was in the field close by with both doors open and the engine running. The man wasn't able to speak English and so I asked him in Spanish "Estas bien?" He said back to me that he was fine but the woman wasn't. The man had been going home, just like us, and had come upon the car as well. So while Mike called for the ambulance, I made my way down through the ditch and headed to the car to see if the woman was, well if she was alive.
As long as I live, I will never forget the next 10 minutes that followed because of instead of minutes they seemed like hours. She was slumped over the steering wheel, the remains of her deployed air bag all about her. I couldn't see her face but I called out to her, "Are you ok? Can you hear me?" Friends, I gotta tell you that I've never been so happy to hear moaning and groaning for an answer in all of my life. I slid in next to her in the passenger seat and found her purse so we could figure out who she was. It made me feel uneasy to open up another person's belongings and I told her while I was doing it that I needed to tell my husband what her name was so the 911 operator could pass along the information.
I give so much credit to 911 dispatchers EVERYWHERE after this experience yesterday. As we were waiting for the ambulance to arrive, the woman working the dispatch for 911 kept me on the phone talking all the while about what to do. She admonished me to keep the woman talking and awake and asked me questions about her injuries. "Was she bleeding anywhere? Was she cold? Could she breathe?" There was little I could do but that and to hold her very cold right hand. I kept telling the woman it would be ok, that we were neighbours to the area and I was a teacher from Kansas and a thousand other trivial, non-important things just to keep her awake and talking. I admonished her to not let go of my hand and to please squeeze it if she was awake. I gotta say, I cannot remember when holding hands with another person meant so much to me and when she squeezed my hand with a "butcher's grip" it was like a gift from Heaven above. When we heard the sirens' approach from the hospital in Montrose, it was such a relief.
They came to take her to the hospital and we waited along the edge of the road until she had been loaded into the ambulance before we went the final quarter mile to home. Both of us agreed that was plenty enough excitement for the day and we went back to our packing. After only about 20 minutes of being there, we remembered that we hadn't gone back to the art store to pick up the starfish. That was a strange feeling. We had decided after looking at it that we'd probably go back to get it after we had gone to the hospice store. Yet we had forgotten and started the journey home already. That's when things finally started to make some sense.
I have said before many times in this blog post that I know that someone way smarter than me is in charge of my life here on this earth. God's master plan for a little baby named Peggy Ann who was born way back in 1955 has been laid out all along. It's not an accident or a case of happenstance. It's real and meaningful for me. I haven't always understood it but I accept it for the loving gift and blessing that it is. Mike and I weren't supposed to go back and get the starfish right away, for having done so would not have placed us in a position to help the woman. We WERE supposed to stop at the McDonald's. That extra few minutes of time that it took to do so may well have kept our vehicle out of her path as she careened across the road to avoid a deer that had popped up out of the ditch. I don't even really try to figure it out. It seems better to accept it as the blessing that it was for all concerned.
As the hours went by last evening, we were thinking about her and wondering if she had made it. I couldn't get her off of my mind and I told Mike about it. What was particularly haunting to me, was that I had never seen her face nor had she seen mine. She was in such a doubled over position upon the steering wheel that all I saw was the back of her beautiful dark red hair. To be real honest, initially I was afraid to see her face because I feared that she might be gone already. As she started to moan and groan I was thankful but I knew that she could not and should not try to move. But still, what did she look like? Who was she?
At 8 p.m. we called the hospital and were able to speak with her mom. Sensing how badly we felt, she said if we wished that we could meet her in the emergency room to see how her daughter was doing. In just a few moments we were there and finally able to see one another for the first time. The young woman, named Candace, told me that she recognized my voice and that it was what kept her going in the waiting time it took for the ambulance to show up. She remembered squeezing my hand and waiting with me. A sweet little red-haired girl was sitting on a stool next to her momma and I realized then that she was the "extra" social security card in her mother's wallet. They have just come here to live in Montrose, new people just like me. When Mike and I left, we told them that we were going home to Kansas today for Christmas but that when we return we will check in to see how things are going. She was pretty badly injured with a broken back but thankfully she will make a full recovery. We now have new friends here in this place~God always provides.
In just a few hours, Mike and I will begin the journey back home to Kansas. The snow has fallen and the weather is of course, not the best. We will go slow and take our time. The car is packed with emergency supplies and the gas tank will never ever go below 3/4 full. We have cell phones fully charged and it's not the first time that either of us have made the trip. If the weather gets worse along the way, we will stop and find a place to wait it out. I always try to post on Facebook when we get to certain locations along the way. I figure at least that way someone will always know where we have been at a certain time. After yesterday's experience, we know even more that we must take caution as we go. I've never smelled the after effects of an air bag going off before yesterday and I can tell you now that I have, I will never forget it.
Friends, if you are reading this then you have awoken. You are alive and well and it was meant most definitely for you to be here on this earth. I'm telling you with certainty that God has a plan for you today. Open your eyes and open your heart as you watch for it to be shown to you. Accidents can and will happen but LIFE is not one of them.
I could never tell any of you enough and so I say again.... THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND TO ME AND I LOVE EACH OF YOU SO VERY MUCH. See you in Kansas very soon.
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