Life and Death

I was in my studio painting when I heard the unmistakable sound of two cars, slamming head on into each other. I know the sound from a time when I was rear ended. Luckily, I walked away from it, unhurt.

I yelled at Robert who was half asleep sitting here on the couch on his computer. I was running toward the door as I went by him, "There's been a horrible crash, we need to see if they need help." I grabbed blankets and towels and ran to the highway and the site of the crash, he was right with me.

A lady was screaming in agony, her ankle was fractured and bleeding, people were all over the place wandering around kind of dazed, some of them were trying to help. There were teenagers, standing there with fear and disbelief on their faces.

Ir an back into the house to call 911 and bring flashlights.

We got the blankets on a man who'd been lying down in the back seat when the crash happened. He was unresponsive and had a bad head injury.

Our neighbors came running from all directions, wanting to see the action. One of them threw a burning cigarette on the ground. Gas from the smashed car was running toward the borrow ditch toward the cigarette, I stomped it out.

By this time, the emt's were arriving on the scene. One of them told me, you get out of here. So I came into the house.

I'm remembering Robert standing in the middle of the five lane highway, swinging the flashlight, trying to get traffic to slow down. Some of them honked their horns at him and blew right by.

If you can believe this, an emergency room doctor from Washington was one of the first cars upon the scene. He took immediate control. It was wonderful to have someone there who knew what needed to be done to care for the injured people.

When I got back into the house, tears fell from me like rain as I prayed for the injured people and their families. It came home to me, how sudden life can change. One moment you are down the highway, happy as a clam, tending to your family or singing songs, or rejoicing in high hopes of where you are headed. The next you are hurt and headed for the hospital, left to the care of strangers, either the good care, or the bad care, depending upon how much they might know of first aide. You are at their mercy.

I was also thinking this, people Robert and I tended to tonight, will never know who called 911, or who brought the blankets and towels or who stopped other cars from crashing into them...... And that is fine with me. For I believe God's angels are you and me, right here on this earth, sent to care for each other.

Even though we don't know who was in this terrible accident, please pray with me they will be ok.
Donna