Little did I
know as I packed my books in February that I would unpack them two months
later. And as I prayed for the Lord to lead us to where we should go, I did not
know that my husband, Larry, and I would not be going to the same place.
We were planning
to move back to the Abbotsford, Langley, area in BC where we had lived some
twelve years earlier. It all started with a conversation over lunch with Dwayne
and Maureen, our son and our daughter-in-law. We were talking about seniors’
housing being in short supply and that it might be a good idea for us to think
about where we would like to live and putting our name into some places.
Our plan was to
move back to the coast into an apartment, and from there we could decide which
seniors’ housing would be the right place for us to make an application for. We
needed to look for an apartment there, so we decided we would drive to Surrey
to visit our son, Dustin, and his family, and from there we would search.
Larry would be
eighty years old on March 4, and we could celebrate his birthday as well as
look for a place at the same time. Our children planned a big party with our
family and friends. This was a milestone for Larry because his life had nearly
been cut short a few times before this, and making it this far was somewhat of
a miracle.
Someone has
said, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.” We were praying
about what we should do, and it seemed to us that this was a way to test the
waters. We left Castlegar the morning of March
1. Our plan was
to travel halfway, stay overnight at Princeton, and finish the trip the next
day.
We would be
traveling through mountain passes which could have snow on the highway, so we
wanted to give ourselves lots of time. Larry was a truck driver with more than
three million miles behind him, so he was not too concerned about driving.
Although there
was quite a bit of snow in the first pass, we made good time, arriving in
Princeton early in the afternoon. The next morning after breakfast, we set out
for the final part of our trip. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and we felt good
about the trip thus far.
There was quite
a lot of snow on the Hope-Princeton Highway, but
Larry was not
concerned. Our 2008 Toyota seemed to handle the road conditions well. When we
passed the Hope turnoff and began the divided freeway with two lanes going each
way, we felt we had it made. The worst was over!
We passed a semi
and were still in the left lane when suddenly the left front wheel got caught
in a deep pothole. Larry struggled desperately to keep the car on the road, but
it seemed as if a force stronger than him wrenched the wheel out of his hands,
and we were immediately airborne.
I called out,
“Lord, help us,” as the car flew off the road into the median which was full of
snow.
Everything
happened so fast; it seemed as if we were watching a movie, spellbound. We sat
there with our seat belts on while the car careened crazily down the
embankment, spinning around and doing donuts and other turns. As we spun
around, there was a lot of snow going across the windshield. The back end of
the car slammed into the snowbank as we fishtailed, and the trunk opened,
spilling suitcases and some of the other contents.
As the car was
spinning and slamming into banks, the big back window smashed in, as well as
the backside windows. The backseat was filled with snow. My glasses flew off
and were later found in the snow in the backseat, and my left hearing aid flew
out and was later found on the dash.
At one point we
started to climb the bank toward the traffic on the eastbound side, but it was
a steep incline, and we were kept from going there. For one second I saw it, I
thought we might go into it; but instead the car rolled back, turned, and came
to rest on its right side on two wheels leaning against a snow-covered bank.
Larry had to brace himself with his feet in order not to fall down on me.
In the midst of
all this turmoil, we sat there with our seat belts on.
Strangely, we
felt protected. The front window did not even have a crack in it, the front
side windows were untouched, and the air bags did not deploy.
We were not
seriously injured.
I reached for my
cell phone, began dialing 911, and then a man was standing there, peering in
the front window, asking if we were all right.
We shouted we
were okay. Just then two RCMP officers appeared. They were traveling by and saw
what happened. One of them had been headed west, and the other one was headed
east. Coincidence?
A truck driver
had stopped and come to help, as well as some other men. There were at least
six men there. When we said we were all right, with us still in the car, they
put the car back on four wheels. They opened the doors and helped us out of the
car, asking again and again, “Are you sure you are all right?” We assured them
we were a little shaken but otherwise all right.
We each had two
men, one on each side, holding on to us as we trudged through the deep snow
across the median and up the bank to the highway. We waited in the police car until
the ambulance came. After the paramedics checked us out and the police took our
statements, we were taken to the Fraser Canyon Hospital at Hope, British
Columbia, for further examination.
Besides being
shaken up, Larry had some cuts on his hands and arms which were quickly
bandaged. The cuts were probably from the shattered glass when the back windows
smashed. I had a black eye. I must have banged my head on the window frame, although
I did not remember just when it happened.
