It was halloween night in the year of 1994. I was 10 years of age and a Boy Scout at the time. That halloween our troop decided to host a "spookery trail" to raise some money and we were on our way to have fun being scared and running away from wild men with chainsaws. It was me, my cousin Dedra, my Mom, Dad, thier friend...A Scout leader... and the Scout leader's son that all piled in our extended cab Chevy pickup and made our way to the spook trail in the woods. When we arrived I was excited and didn't know what to expect. As we made our way along the trail, I can remember thinking that this was a pretty good one and had some really good scenes. I was shaken up a couple of times but tried to act like it wasn't that scarey until I got chased out of the trail by a man with a chainsaw! I knew in the back of my mind that there was no way that he would acually have a real chain on but nonetheless...I ran like it was real!
As we talked amongst ourselves about the trail, we made our way back to the truck to make the journey back home. When we came to the truck we all piled in...my Dad was driving, my Mom was in the front middle seat and The Scout leader was in the front passenger seat. I was behind my Dad, my cousin was in the back middle and the Scout leader's son was behind him. We began our ride back home, conversing and laughing about the trial like normal people do. My Dad mentioned that we were actually having a discussion about angels at the time right before the wreck. As we made our way down Hwy 23, we came to the point that exits into Hwy 71 north. As we were approaching our exit, a Tyson chicken truck was also exiting ONTO Hwy 23 coming from 71 south. When he made the turn onto Hwy 23 much of the weight shifted and he lost his load on top of our truck. As we were going around the curve, the Tyson chicken truck carrying a full load of chickens in crates was coming toward us on the curve as well. Like I said...everything was normal...we were just driving along. All of a sudden the boy in the back passenger seat yelled out....LOG! He thought that the 30 plus chicken crates that were now falling off of the Tyson chicken truck were acually logs falling off of a logging truck. I personally had no idea what had happened to us until the next morning. The driver of the truck had failed to secure his load earlier that day, or the chains just broke, and when he made the exit he lost his load on top of our truck. We were going about 55 to 6o mph around the curve when the load was lost so you can imagine how great of an impact it made on our vehicle. The worst thing is that the truck driver did not even notice that anything had even happened, that he had lost a good portion of his load... and just kept on going unitl a patrol officer chased him down to inform him of what happened!
After the kid screamed out...LOG!...the truck was quiet for another second becuase no one knew what was actually happening. Like I said, I had no idea what was about to happen because I was in the seat behind my father and could not see anything. Next thing I can remember is my father raising up his hands off of the stearing wheel as a natural reaction to block the chicken crates that were about to come crashing through the front windshield at speeds of 55mph. I remember the impact, just imagine the sound of a bomb mixed with shattering glass...that was the initial hit. Then, because there where about 20 to 30 crates that acually fell on top of our truck, the next sound was like a bunch of huge rocks just pouring down. This all happened within a few seconds time. When the hit occured, I was shocked and did not know how to react at first...I could not believe this was happening...I thought "Am I in a dream?" As glass started to fly, my natural reaction was to duck behind my father's seat. My cousin Dedra also used the driver's seat as shelter from the flying glass so I took her under under my arms to protect her. The crash itself lasted for a while, so it seemed...a good 15 to 20 seconds at least. When the crates hit us my Dad slamed on the breaks and the skid marks can be seen on the road, but upon impact my Dad's neck was broken and his foot let off the break. We continued down the road for a while and finally endend up going off into the ditch on the right, running through a thicket of trees, finally hitting one big enough to make us come to a complete stop. I can remember this time very well. I still thought I was in a dream..."could this be happening?" I acually pinched and slapped myself to wake up as I was looking around. Everything was quiet and the dome light was flickering on and off...like some kind of horror movie. The headlights were still on, shining through the trees ahead. Steam was vilently rising from the broken engine and I could still hear the crackling of the broken windsheild. Sticks and glass were everywhere inside the vehicle as well as about 5 or so chicken crates stuck in the front windshield. Some of the chickens were still half alive and moving around in the crates. The dome light flickered a few more times and went off for good leaving us in total darkness with the moonlight. My mother and father broke the silence with gurgling...like they were trying to breath. I wanted to cry and started to, but I couldn't becuase I was in shock. I was asking my cousin "what happened? what happend?" and she was asking me the same. While my cousin and the other kid in the back were moving around, I remember looking at my mom. The middle seat had broken backwards from the impact and she was now almost laying in my lap. The light had turned back on now for a moment and I rubbed her forhead that was glittered with broken glass, she was out cold. Upon impact one of the crates hit her in the head and slamed her back, causing her to suffer a severe brain unjury and slip into a comma for a couple of weeks. The other guy in the passenger seat finally came to consciousness and tryed to open his door. The trees made it difficult but he managed to open it enough to get out of the truck and make it up to the road to wave for some help. It was about a minute or so until another car passed by. As he was looking for help, we (the kids) began to try to get out of the truck ourselves. The kid in the back found a large stick and began to try and bust the back winshield out...it wasn't working. So we just waited, I had so many emotions going on in my head. I was scared, hurt because of what had happened to my parents, and confused. A person finally did drive by and stopped. It was the lady from my daycare and a car full of her children. She called for help and someone came to the truck to help the children out...my mother and father were still uncouncious. Someone ripped the small side window off of the truck and we all crawed through one by one. As we were about to go out my father was trying to talk, but sounded like he was just groaning. When I got out of the truck I was just silent and didn't say much at all while we waited for the ambulance. I didn't want to talk to anyone, there was nothing to say. Everyone was trying to comfort me but it just wasn't working much. The ambulance told my father that he got out of the truck and tried to get my mother out but failed. He then laid on the ground and passed out agian. The next thing he says he remembers is going into the ambulance, then later being woke up by the peremedics stapling major lacerations in his head back together. They told my father that my mother probably would not make it through the night. She was mangled and had a severe brain injury. Later that night they had to transport them both to a hospital in Fort Smith.
That night I could not sleep at all. I didn't know if my parents would live. I ended up staying with my cousin becuase there was no where else to stay. The next morning my cousin's parent's had to go to work so I likewise had to go to school. I can remember walking through the school hallway that morning when I arrived. Everyone was laughing and having a good time before school started like normal...like nothing had happened, but my life had just changed in one night. I sat down beside my best friend and he began to try and joke around with me and talk with me like normal. I told him what happened and he was shocked, not knowing really what to say.
The next two weeks I stayed with my uncle while my parents were in the hospital. My dad had a broken neck at the second vertibra and my mom suffered a severe brain injury. My mother went through many months of rehab and relearned how to do many basic functions of life such as walking, writing, etc. She retained alot of memory though and the doctors were suprised. They said that she would never recover as well as she has. During this time God really comforted our family and gave us the grace to praise and worship him in this tragic time. We did question God and wonder why he would allow such a thing to happen to us, but in the end, God has been very loving and gracious to us to this day. My parents lives could have easily ended on that halloween night of 1994. They now are able to tell the testimony of how God healed them both and kept them alive. It is amazing how a person is able to praise and worship God even in the darkest times of life...when things don't make sense...only by his power and grace are we able to do this. He is the one that gave my parents the strength to continue beliving and loving him in this time. I see no other reason why a person would want to love and serve God after an event like this unless it was accompanied with Him giving us the ability and understanding to do so. During this time our family acually grew closer to God. It has been 15 years now since this freak accident. My mother and father have both recovered with minor evidence of the wreck. I write these thing so that I will have a personal account of what happened and so that you can see a real -live example of how God provides strength and healing in the face of death and tragedy.
