I will start with "Yes, Virginia, There Are Guardian Angels" written on 11/12/2001. This story relates to Christmas only because it happened during the Christmas season and because of it's title which is a play on the title "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus". This trip was a spur of the moment idea. One minute we were sitting and talking and the next we were packing our bags and out the door.
This story could have ended very tragically if it had not been that Crash, my hubby and Burn, my brother had not been protected by some unknown and unseen force. If you have never believed in miracles before perhaps you will after hearing this story.
Crash had been in several auto accidents over the last ten years, more accurately in a span of four years there had been four accidents. None of which were his fault or fatal. It appears that when Crash was on the road he was an accident magnet. I am so very glad that he has survived these accidents and that the trend toward being involved in them is over. I pray that it remains so.
Anyway back to the story at hand. Four people started out on a holiday journey from Florida, with happy thoughts of visiting their family in Michigan. It was winter; I believe this one happened just before Christmas, as we were to spend New Years with my friend Donna and her hubby Allen. The travelers were my brother, my mother, my hubby and myself. We were traveling in two cars and planned on following one another throughout the trip. We took two cars because we knew once we got there that we would be staying at different places and would have transportation problems if we did not.
Only two and a half hours into the trip we became separated from each other, when the lead car, that was my mom and myself, pulled off the road at a rest stop to use the facilities. It was dark out and Crash and Burn, did not see us pull into the rest stop. We thought the lights directly behind us were theirs. That was not the case however. We quickly took care of business and were back on the road in five minutes, but had totally lost our travel partners, there was no sign of them. We got back on the road and traveled on continuing to search for Crash and Burn as we went. They of course were not called Crash and Burn until after this event had occurred but I will refer to them this way just to keep things straight.
We thought they were ahead of us as we traveled because they did not see us pull into the rest stop. Only in all actuality they were behind us all the way. We sped up trying to catch them, unknowingly putting even more space between us and them. The men on the other hand could not drive as fast due to the fact that their vehicle was not in good shape and could only be driven at a slower speed. We had not thought of that at the time.
We did many things during the trip to find them, likewise with them. They signed in the visitors log at each rest stop hoping we would check and see their names, but we were in front so this did not help. We tried calling my brother in Michigan, which was our final destination meeting point. But the men had not called because they did not have his number, and did not think to get it from the operator. We also stopped on the side of the road for 30 minutes to wait and see if they passed us. But they did not and because we thought they were in front we felt that we had fallen even more behind and let more space come between us. If we had only waited another thirty minutes we may have met them again. But then we may have all been involved in the accident or perhaps they may not of been in the accident. It is so funny how things turn out sometimes, Murphy's Law was at play here, big time!
When we arrived at our destination, way ahead of the men and after a worrisome trip we were surprised they were not there yet. Within the hour we received a phone call telling us that Crash and Burn had been in an auto accident in the state of Ohio. During the trip we were so far ahead that we had missed the snow fall that had occurred but the men did not. So we got back in our car to go get the men. It was now snowing and it was in the early morning hours. The roads were very slick with the new fallen snow so the trip was slow. We slowly proceeded back to Findlay, which was about a normal hours trip. We were worried about the men and were mostly silent, each of us in our own deep thoughts as to what condition the men were in and what had happened to cause the accident.
Once we arrived at the hospital and were sure they were okay we then began to question the men and explain what had transpired and how we all became separated. Both men were pretty shaken and banged up but grateful that they were able to walk away. It seems that another motorist, driving a pickup truck, fell asleep behind the wheel and hit Crash and Burn from behind. He was driving about 90 miles an hour and the men had seen him coming in their rearview mirror but were unable to get out of the way because of the snow. They could not move fast enough. Their car was spun around several times and crossed over the median spun again and wound up back in the center of the median. This occurred on I-75 and the median is ditch like.
My brother is the one that was driving, and gave them the name Crash and Burn. He has such a wonderfully happy nature and tends to take most things in stride. The police came and gave the man a ticket. What a dumb cop! The man's license was revoked for DUI, we found out later, and he was not supposed to be driving at all. No wonder he was trying so hard to get out of the ditch before the cops came. But he could not get out he was stuck and got lucky that the cop was more concerned with getting hubby and brother to the hospital then running a license check on the truck driver.
The car was totaled. From the hospital we had to go to the towing yard to get the car. That was a horrendous experience. Finding the yard location was hard then after seeing the car all four of our mouths dropped open. What we saw was shocking. It is amazing that these two men were still walking this earth. It was a small car and it looked like it had been compacted by a machine. So, yes, Virginia there are guardian angels and I am so glad that they exist.
1 comment:
That must have been some scary moments for all of you. Glad they made it out okay and yes, I do believe there are angels!
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