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Home > Michelle's Blog > Previous Postings > 03/12/08
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Previous Postings |
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March 12, 2008:
Nine Lives, Round Three…and finally, the rest of the story…
After reading my first two “near death experiences”, I received many more stories from my “Blog” readers. One from my brother Bruce, who reminded me that I had forgotten the story of the first time he had ever used a nail gun. On his first attempt to hit a board, he wasn’t ready for the compression and lost control of the gun. The back of the gun hit a board and shot two arrant nails. I had my face down there helping my “little” brother with this project, so had the nails not hit the board about 1 inch from my forehead….well, I think you can fill in the rest. It didn’t make one of my top three stories because we just looked at each other and said, “Huh?”, and on we went to finish the garage roof. Apparently it did not put enough fear into me, as I knew my brother would never REALLY kill me.
On April 2nd of 2001, I was driving to Rochester, MN from the Twin Cities. Minnesotans are very happy come April 1st, because we begin to see grass and dirt in the fields, the snow is melted, and we’re anticipating our three months of “non-snow-covered” bliss. But I guess, on this day seven years ago, it was an April Fools joke, because we just got dumped on – yet again!
I was driving on Highway 52 south, which is a four-lane highway. The snow plows had not been out yet, so there was about 5-6 inches of really heavy, wet snow covering the path I was on. I decided to crank it into four-wheel drive and stay in the tracks of the person in front of me. We were all going about 55 miles an hour (Right….but I have one reader who is a State Trooper…).
A pick-up truck pulled over in front of me in the left lane and his snow pummeled my windshield, so I steered over to the right lane. The backend of my Forerunner began sucking to the right – towards the ditch. I steered into that swerve, which sent my back end into the left lane. (I’m sure at this point, all the other drivers around me were watching the “freaky car swerving show” and muttering “woman driver” under their breathe.) When I steered into that swerve, my front wheels caught the grass that was already growing in the median, and launched me, and my car into a flip.
The first flip was end over end. For anyone who has been in an accident, you’ll relate to the feeling - it seemed to be happening very slowly. I remember thinking at that point, “Michelle, if you hear a really loud sound, it means you have gone into that traffic and you will probably die.” Weird – I don’t remember feeling afraid – hmmmm. I hit the far bank, a few feet from that opposite traffic, and my car turned and somersaulted two more times, landing on my wheels. (As in my first story, I seem to land on my feet a lot, but in this case, I do not remember saying “Ta Da”!)
I turned my head from side to side, noting I did not feel any pain, and saw that I was sitting perpendicular to the two traffic patterns. My car was destroyed. The front was completely smashed and torn to pieces and the back end seemed to have just been chopped off. All the windows were gone, yet the driver’s seat and the passenger seat were totally intact. I saw my wallet laying about 50 yards away – back where I had come from. I saw my cell phone laying on the floor of my passenger side. I crawled across the seat, since my door would not open – oh wait, after I undid my seat belt, which seemed to have saved my life – and grabbed my cell phone and called the office to tell them I’d be a little late.
I’m a religious person, so the part of the story that I’d like to share is the feeling as I was rolling, end over end, side over side. It was as if someone – some spirit – had wrapped their arms around me and protected me the entire time. Not just my body, but my whole being. I was never afraid and very calm. My life did not pass before my eyes, as I’ve heard others say. It was more of a “Huh? So this is what it feels like to roll a car.” Maybe I should have been a Nascar racer?
There were about 7 troopers, police, ambulance, etc vehicles. They told me to get in the ambulance, but I asked “Why?” I had not a single injury. No broken bones, no pain, no blood. I did have a little, minute cut on my ear, where a piece of glass had landed, so I picked that scab for many months, just so people would believe that I was in this terrible accident. I needed a war wound. I went to the emergency room – mostly because they made me – and the Dr. said, “Are you sure you were in an accident?” My blood pressure, heart rate, all other vitals were perfectly normal and I had no bruising, no marks, no pain.
I’d love to continue to hear your “near death experiences” so if you have any more to share, please do!
Keep smiling and don’t forget to wear your seatbelt!!
Michelle