I was a new widow choosing to remain in the house that my
husband, Ron, and I had built. There was
no question that I would continue working as Admin Asst to the Fire Chief at the Ocean Springs
Fire Department (MS) and also attend Vancleave Assembly of God Church. I was numb and couldn’t make any decision to
do otherwise.
It was fourteen miles from my front door in Vancleave to the front door of Central Fire Station. Part of those fourteen miles included a
stretch of sparsely inhabited two lane road that commuters traveled, exceeding
the speed limit, trying to make time when they were late for work in the
morning or anxious to get home at night. Traffic was usually light and, as a rule, there
were no delays until you reached Vancleave.
On one particular trip home from work, I was taken off
guard when I noticed a school bus in front of me with about four cars behind
it. They were at a dead stop and I had
to slam on my brakes. We sat there for
quite awhile waiting for the traffic to move.
When I looked up in my rearview mirror, I saw a big,
black, pickup truck barreling down on me. I gripped the steering wheel and waited for him to notice that we were
all stopped ahead of him. HE DIDN’T
NOTICE! He was still coming full
speed. All I could utter was, “Oh,
God...Oh, God...Oh, God!” as I stared in my
rearview mirror and braced myself for impact. It was one of those moments when you can’t watch but you can’t look away
either. I just knew I was going to die right
there on Highway 57 in south Mississippi!
When the truck driver got close enough to realize that
traffic was stopped in front of him, he slammed on his brakes and pulled over
into the ditch finally stopping three cars in front of me. When I think of where he would have stopped
if he hadn’t pulled over, I get goose bumps.
Soon the bus began to move and all of us pulled forward
as if we hadn’t just escaped death. I
drove past his truck and looked over at him thinking, I should stop and check on him; maybe say something but there was
nothing that could have been said. He
was sitting there staring out his front window and I’m sure contemplating his
narrow escape from death as well.
Later that night the event became more surreal to me as I
relived looking in my rearview mirror. What if I had died? I thought of being in heaven with my husband,
Ron, and how that would have been perfectly fine with me. I was lonely and ready to go. Then I thought of my loved ones that I would
have left behind; my daughter, Kristen and granddaughter, Emma; my sons Russell
and Aaron, and I decided that I did
want to live. I wanted to live to see
many more grandchildren.
Thank You, Lord, for saving me that day so I could
be Mimi to . . .
MACKENZIE RAE
EMMA
KATHERINE and
ISABELLA REESE.
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