Virtute.org

I remember that I packed the back of the van for our trip home and I put the heavy stuff on the bottom and the lighter stuff on the top.  Lee complained about how I’d packed it, I think because he thought the stack was too high and he didn’t want it falling down on him during the trip home.  After the accident, he said that my crazy packing job saved his life because all the blankets and pillows fell on him and protected him.

We had been listening to a cassette tape on the trip home that had silly Mormon songs (I think the Mormon rap was on it among others).  My mom was driving, Krista and Sarah were sharing the front passenger seat (Krista was on the floor), Barbara was in a captain seat behind my mother, I was in the captain seat on the passenger side by the door, Bryan was in his car seat on the floor in the middle.  Barbara and I had been taking turns holding and taking care of Bryan was we drove.  Lee was sleeping across the back seat.

I was drifting off to sleep when the accident happened.  I felt a big jolt as the van came to a stop in the middle of a bush that was taller than the van.  I opened my eyes and saw branches were sticking through the window and the engine was pushed forward into my mom.  I can still hear my mom’s voice cracking with emotion and pain as she asked “can anyone get out?”  She said it about 2 or 3 times before I got the door open (I can feel and hear the door of the van opening in my mind).  When the accident happened, my head hit the seat in front of me and my glasses were knocked off my face.  I didn’t go back and look for them until a little while later when we were waiting for help to arrive.  I was afraid that I’d find them broken, but they were fine.

I remember the snow was deep and we were walking around the house that we had crashed in front of, but no one seemed to be home.  There were overgrown looking bushes and trees around the house. 

After someone had called for help, I really looked at the van for the first time.  I walked around to the front drivers side.  My mom couldn’t move anything except her head which she could only move a little.  She was pinned in the van and she was in pain.  I am sure that there were tears on her face.    

I remember Barbara walking around holding Bryan in her arms and he looked ok, except for a little spot of blood behind his ear.  I didn’t think he was hurt.  I don’t remember him crying or being unconscious.  

We were all walking around in the snow and waving vehicles down on the street.  No one had cell phones at that time and we didn’t know what else to do.

Cars started to pull over and someone insisted that we sit in his pick-up truck to warm up while we waited.  I’m not sure who was with me, but at least one of my siblings was with me in the truck and told me that Sarah was hurt badly.  I remember not even noticing that I was cold until I got into his warm truck.  I sat in that truck as my siblings were loaded into ambulances.  I saw the jaws of life starting to take the van apart.  I remember counting the ambulances, police cars, and fire truck(s).  A telephone pole was broken in half, we had driven through a bush and were stopped in the middle of a second bush.  They were still trying to get my mom out when someone directed me to an ambulance.

Krista and I were assigned the same ambulance as Sarah.  She was laying on a stretcher in the middle. She was covered in blood and they were asking her if she could move her legs.  She had been wearing her favorite outfit and she cried louder as they cut it off of her.  Krista threw-up in her hands and they told her to hold it while they got her something.

At the hospital, they took Sarah out and then Krista and I were taken to a room by ourselves and given a quick check-up.  We were antsy and anxious and pacing around the room.  We could hear Sarah crying at times. 

We were told that some of our family members were taken to another hospital.  One of the hospitals was named Providence (I learned to remember the capital of Rhode Island by remembering that it was the same name as the hospital after our accident).  A policeman took us in his police car to the other hospital to meet Barbara and Lee.  I remember that we sat in the back and that he stopped somewhere along the way to get us a treat at a fast food restaurant.  I hadn’t even thought of food and I wasn’t very hungry.

When we arrived at the hospital, Barbara and Lee told us that Bryan was in critical condition.  I was surprised because I thought that he was fine.  They said that he had stopped breathing at least once.  I remember thinking that I was grateful that he had waited until the professionals were helping him to stop breathing—I don’t know that Barbara or I could have saved his life if he had stopped breathing before the ambulance came.

I don’t remember being at that hospital long.  Our friends from church (The Doughtys, I think) took us home.  It was dark and very late when we finally got home.