23 Years Ago

December 12, 1989, 23 years ago, my life was turned upside down. This is the story from the eyes of an 8-year old, as I remember it... My brother, sister and I were just getting home from school. It was a cold December day and my Aunt dropped us off as usual because my mom had already left for the hospital where she worked evenings as a telephone operator. As we walked into the house we passed our neighbor who was leaving, he worked as an EMT. My two older sisters were already home from school, they were tending Brett (2) and as we walked in my sisters were in tears. Rikkie(14)who was on the phone with our dad, quickly handed the phone over to Melissa(12)and took us into the living room. She sat us down and explained that there had been a horrible accident on Geneva Road and the neighbor said that it was our mom. He had come to the house to call my dad at work and let him know. I remember Rikkie gathering us all for a prayer but the rest of the evening is a blur. As more details unfolded I began to understand the severity of things, it was unlikely that my mom would live. My dad and grandparents rushed over to the hospital where she was taken by Life Flight to the University of Utah Medical Center. My Aunt & cousins came to be with us and ward members came by to help and wait. For the next week or so, we waited. Waited to see if she had made it through the night, waited to see what the Dr's would say and the tests would show. No one knew if she would live or if she would ever come out of her coma. I don't remember seeing my dad at all. People brought food and treats to the house, lots of food from people we didn't even know. A few days before Christmas they decided to let the older kids go to visit my mom for the first time. I didn't qualify but I was relieved when I heard that seeing her was too much for Nick to bear, he was two years older than me but he had ran out of the room in tears. On Christmas morning we received a call from my Grandpa, he had spent the night with her at the hospital and he was so excited that she had fluttered her eyelashes! We called it a Christmas Miracle! We all went to see her that day. We gathered around her bed in the ICU, she was covered in tubes, her legs were in traction, part of her head had been shaved and she was on a respirator. I remember being so scared to get near her but my grandma kept forcing me to hold her hand and talk to her. I was terrified and carsick from the drive up and we sang lots of Christmas carols. I was confused, scared and unsure for a long, long time. She slowly came out of her coma and then endured months of intense therapy. At one point she spent several months in an inpatient rehabilitation center. The years that followed were hard. I have no doubt that the challenges, unfairness and pain that accident brought helped determine who I am today. Each year I look back and remember the events of that day the best I can, I try to put myself in each of our shoes. Try to see it through the eyes of my siblings, my dad, my aunt and my grandparents. I know that we all suffered and in many ways it still affects each of our lives. This year my feelings are different. Maybe because I am now a mom, maybe it's because I've moved away but I think it's only right that I take the time today to say... "Thank you mom. Thanks for having the courage and the strength to fight. Thank you for the years of physical and emotional pain you endured. Thank you for learning to talk, walk, read and write again. Thank you for getting out of bed everyday and try. Thank you for listening to us cry and whine about how much the accident hurt us. It would have been so easy to give up. Thank you for staying. Thanks for being there when I danced, I graduated, I got married and when I had my baby. Thank you for being around to watch us all grow up. I love you and although I'll never fully understand your sacrifices, I appreciate them more than you know."