I don't know a woman on this planet who hasn't at some point just sat down and cried her eyes out. I certainly wanted to do that right then, but with Vern under medical attention by an Army medic who came to the scene and the kids looking a bit panicked (even with Denny back), it was not the time.
"Does everybody have a pair of shoes on?" I asked the kids calmly, glancing to be sure Vern had his boots on. They all did. Woops. Not me though. I had been walking on a sea of glass at the wreckage in bare feet. Some stranger found my flip flops inside the truck and dug them out for me.
"Does someone have a veterinarian around here that can check Denny out while we are at the hospital?" My new friend, Stephanie, who saw us barrel roll through the ditch volunteered to take Denny to see her vet, who was just two exits up the road from there. We exchanged phone numbers, and then off he went with Stephanie.
I asked Vern what had happened, and he said that a semi truck hauling a John Deere tractor (did it have to be a John Deere?!!!) tried to pass us and the blades of the tractor hit the back of the camper. I went to take a picture of the back of the camper (my Nikon D5100 was still working fine) and sure enough. There was John Deere green slapped onto the back of the camper right down the center. He had clearly been going too fast (we were doing 65 and he tried to pass us), and too close (since the tractor he was carrying pegged the camper right in the center).
Someone was putting essentials in a pile for me. Guns, wallets, phones. Someone else was moving the propane tanks a safe distance from the wreck. One man came up to me and handed me $200 and asked if he could pray with me for our family. I did so gladly. Another woman came up to me and assured me that Vern's head was nasty, but OK (she was an Army nurse), and asked to pray with me for our family. I got the Guthrie firefighters digging through the camper wreckage to find my medicine box. I would need that in the morning.
And then the truck driver who had rear-ended us showed up. He had stopped his unharmed semi truck about 3/4 mile down the road and had walked back up with the guy he was traveling with.
I can't tell you that the trucker came on the scene with his cowboy hat in hand asking if we were all OK and how sorry he was. No, he took a different road altogether. That trucker got into Vern's personal space and screamed at Vern that the whole thing was Vern's fault. So there's Vern, his head and shoulders soaked in blood, his wife and three young kids badly shaken nearby, his beloved truck totaled and his camper reduced to toothpicks. I could almost hear Vern's teeth grinding and his hackles coming up.
And at that moment, my husband could've taken the road that most people would expect him to take. The road any man who dedicates his life to protecting his family would have been justified to take. Instead, he went off-roading and with his best Texas manners, growled like the tiger he is at the trucker to leave or else he would find himself on the ground.
One of the guys at the scene said, "He sure is capable of doing it, too, Buddy. You better go." And then the firefighters and the military guys and the sheriff were shooing the trucker away while the big bad tiger held a blue and white striped towel to his still bleeding head.
"Mom, doesn't that man care that he hurt us?" my little Isaac asked me, wailing with disbelief.
"No Baby, he's not thinking straight. Your dad knows that. But look at all these people who don't even know us that are helping us." He nodded in understanding as I gazed at the tiger I had married 13 years ago in complete amazement.
A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control. Proverbs 29:11
Part 3 to follow at a later
date as this is plenty to absorb for one post. Thanks to each of you for allowing me to use these blog posts as a means to process what we went through. Knowing that so many are reading them has really helped me deal with it all. Many thanks!
Let me add though, that
if you do not know Jesus as your savior, I suggest you seek Him out.
You just never know when your time is up on this earth.
Website for views of the wreck that made the news:
http://kfor.com/2014/07/11/traffic-alert-emergency-crews-on-scene-of-rv-accident-on-i-35/
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Friday, July 18, 2014
Off-roading Garling Style Part I: His ways are perfect
Seven days ago, we were just north of Oklahoma City on our final stretch of driving home from our annual Trail Ride vacation in North Dakota. Vern and I had just finished a lively conversation about what we wanted to do to prepare for our trip next year, when all of a sudden my head hit the front dash of the Excursion and I saw the highway black top up way too close to my nose. We had been hit from behind by something with enough force that it lifted the back wheels of the Excursion into the air. We had been driving about 65 mph towing our 35 foot bumper pull camper, so when the back wheels of the Excursion reconnected with the road, the whole rig swerved crazily down the highway. Kids were screaming, I was screaming, the camper would jack knife into my peripheral vision with great detail, and all the while, Vern fighting that wheel and repeating over and over to us "WE ARE GOING TO BE OK!!".
He doesn't remember saying that over and over.
We both remember when the truck headed for the ditch on I-35 though. We were headed straight for a T-post in the ground, and I was wondering if that T-post would stop us. And then feeling really silly when we went right through that post as if it were merely a flimsy twig stuck in the ground.
As the front wheels of the truck hit the dirt, the whole rig flipped once end over end. Even under such conditions, my scientific brain was in overdrive, as I remember wondering what sort of physics insult would cause a SUV plus camper to flip end over end. And then we were barrel rolling. Three times. I remember each one because the truck would land on the driver's side, then we were air born, then the truck would land on my side, then we were air born, and then repeat...and I kept wishing there wouldn't be another cycle of it. I held my breath the whole time during those barrel rolls.
And through it all the kids were screaming, red Oklahoma dirt was flying everywhere and all I could do was grip the arm rest and wait for it to end.
When we came to a stop, the truck had landed on the driver's side. I looked down, still belted into my seat and all I could see were Vern's legs not moving.
"Sweet Jesus, don't take my man from me!"I sobbed out loud.
And then Vern's legs started moving and he wiggled out of the truck. I have lovingly renamed him THE COCKROACH.
Relief overcame me in waves at that point, and my survival mode kicked in as we both scanned the truck for the kids, calling their names. Matt was already out, Grace was unbuckling, and Isaac was hopping out the back hatch of the totaled truck.
Desperate to hold my family, I unbuckled my seat belt and shimmied through the hole that used to be my front passenger window and jumped to the ground. Which in retrospect is funny because I don't shimmy or jump anywhere--not even on a trampoline for fun.
The kids were all crying but standing together between the exhausted truck and the camper now reduced to toothpicks. Vern sat on a red crate near the truck his head gushing blood and his hands all ripped up. I was torn trying to decide who to go to first--the kids or Vern. The kids won, but only because I knew my man could take care of himself and the short people needed a parent.
When I got to them, I gathered them into my arms and whispered "Is everyone OK? Anyone hurt?" They were all fine, except Matt's right eye had swollen almost shut and Grace had a nasty seat belt burn on her belly.
I barely had time to go into mom mode to calm my little chickens down when they all started crying deep heaves of sobs for Denny, our five year old yellow lab who had been traveling with us. He was nowhere in sight. Then Vern chimed in also asking where his dog was. We were all sure he was dead and I dreaded finding his body in the wreckage. But then someone said that he had taken off up the road, and that the person who caught him was walking him back to us. They pointed in that direction and sure enough, here comes Denny--not a scratch on him.
And that was the first time that day that I knew I was not going to be able to comprehend the multiple miracles of that wreck. We were all alive. And over and over again I whispered to My Lord, "Your ways are perfect. Your ways are perfect."
He is our praise and He is our God--who has done for us these GREAT and AWESOME works our eyes have seen. Deuteronomy 10:21
Part II to follow at a later date as this is plenty to absorb for one post. Let me add though, that if you do not know Jesus as your savior, I suggest you seek Him out. You just never know when your time is up on this earth.
Website for views of the wreck that made the news:
http://kfor.com/2014/07/11/traffic-alert-emergency-crews-on-scene-of-rv-accident-on-i-35/
He doesn't remember saying that over and over.
We both remember when the truck headed for the ditch on I-35 though. We were headed straight for a T-post in the ground, and I was wondering if that T-post would stop us. And then feeling really silly when we went right through that post as if it were merely a flimsy twig stuck in the ground.
As the front wheels of the truck hit the dirt, the whole rig flipped once end over end. Even under such conditions, my scientific brain was in overdrive, as I remember wondering what sort of physics insult would cause a SUV plus camper to flip end over end. And then we were barrel rolling. Three times. I remember each one because the truck would land on the driver's side, then we were air born, then the truck would land on my side, then we were air born, and then repeat...and I kept wishing there wouldn't be another cycle of it. I held my breath the whole time during those barrel rolls.
And through it all the kids were screaming, red Oklahoma dirt was flying everywhere and all I could do was grip the arm rest and wait for it to end.
When we came to a stop, the truck had landed on the driver's side. I looked down, still belted into my seat and all I could see were Vern's legs not moving.
"Sweet Jesus, don't take my man from me!"I sobbed out loud.
And then Vern's legs started moving and he wiggled out of the truck. I have lovingly renamed him THE COCKROACH.
Relief overcame me in waves at that point, and my survival mode kicked in as we both scanned the truck for the kids, calling their names. Matt was already out, Grace was unbuckling, and Isaac was hopping out the back hatch of the totaled truck.
Desperate to hold my family, I unbuckled my seat belt and shimmied through the hole that used to be my front passenger window and jumped to the ground. Which in retrospect is funny because I don't shimmy or jump anywhere--not even on a trampoline for fun.
The kids were all crying but standing together between the exhausted truck and the camper now reduced to toothpicks. Vern sat on a red crate near the truck his head gushing blood and his hands all ripped up. I was torn trying to decide who to go to first--the kids or Vern. The kids won, but only because I knew my man could take care of himself and the short people needed a parent.
When I got to them, I gathered them into my arms and whispered "Is everyone OK? Anyone hurt?" They were all fine, except Matt's right eye had swollen almost shut and Grace had a nasty seat belt burn on her belly.
I barely had time to go into mom mode to calm my little chickens down when they all started crying deep heaves of sobs for Denny, our five year old yellow lab who had been traveling with us. He was nowhere in sight. Then Vern chimed in also asking where his dog was. We were all sure he was dead and I dreaded finding his body in the wreckage. But then someone said that he had taken off up the road, and that the person who caught him was walking him back to us. They pointed in that direction and sure enough, here comes Denny--not a scratch on him.
And that was the first time that day that I knew I was not going to be able to comprehend the multiple miracles of that wreck. We were all alive. And over and over again I whispered to My Lord, "Your ways are perfect. Your ways are perfect."
He is our praise and He is our God--who has done for us these GREAT and AWESOME works our eyes have seen. Deuteronomy 10:21
Part II to follow at a later date as this is plenty to absorb for one post. Let me add though, that if you do not know Jesus as your savior, I suggest you seek Him out. You just never know when your time is up on this earth.
Website for views of the wreck that made the news:
http://kfor.com/2014/07/11/traffic-alert-emergency-crews-on-scene-of-rv-accident-on-i-35/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)