Special Feature…tagged onto COPING with TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY.
*Please make sure you’re safe and secure in your seat (or wherever you are)…this could be a tough read.
Looking at life from another person’s perspective might not always be easy, but it certainly helps us remember to extend a little mercy and compassion along the way! Get ready…
I’m bringing you in for an “up-close-and-personal” look at the crash scene through Emily’s eyes, as she drove the four of us in her Tahoe, on our way to meet the other Bible study ladies in Tyler…
I remember coming to a stop at the new red light at the FM 344 and Hwy. 69 intersection and being the first one in the right-hand lane. That is the last thing that I clearly remember for awhile. I blacked out during the time, I don’t remember the details of exactly what happened besides what investigators and eyewitnesses told us.
Here is where it gets difficult! Everything at this point is in tunnel vision, and it was blurry as if it was a dream. The next thing I know my horn is blaring and I’m just staring at my steering wheel and I cannot get out of my seat belt. I remember looking over and seeing Heather just sitting peacefully in the passenger seat. I remember wanting to touch her or get her out of her seatbelt or try to help her but it’s like my body wouldn’t let me do what my brain was thinking. It seemed I could process things but I couldn’t act on things. I can hear someone faintly crying or talking so I looked back and Cindy’s legs were dangling from the back seat. It’s hard to explain, but it’s like the guy hit us and made the back of the Tahoe push the back seat up flat to the roof and her legs were hanging so that her toes were at eye level for me. All I wanted to do was get out of that car. I remember seeing grass and going over to Patti and she was lying on the road with nothing but blood around her body. I remember exactly what she was wearing, a bright pink sleeveless shirt with matching flowered Capri pants. I don’t know that I will ever get these visions of my friends out of my head and how they looked that day. I’m not sure if this is a dream or not, but I do remember seeing the whole accident scene from like a bird’s eye view, like I was in the sky looking down. I remember seeing my car in the median to the left, the truck that hit me over in the ditch on the right. Seeing Patti in the road and seeing cars and people starting to gather around. I’m not sure what this means exactly, God and I are still talking it over. Surprisingly, I finally saw pictures of the accident when we had our trial years later, and they were very similar to what I remember seeing.
The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22,23; NASB)
