“Because you have been my help, therefore in
the shadow of your wings will I rejoice.” (AKJV)
“Finally. The last tray,” I thought as I scrubbed the
last bakery tray for the day. I glanced
at the clock with relief that my shift would soon be over. I found it very difficult to concentrate on
my job when thoughts of my mother’s dementia continued to flood my mind.
“She is getting so
forgetful. She needs me to be home
more. Dad cannot take care of her by
himself. What am I going to do?” I
thought. I prepared to go home, and left
the store.
As I drove home, I
attempted to clear my head by listening to some jazz. I took a deep breath as the sound of the
relaxed tempos filled the car. As I
drove along the two-lane highway, I rolled down my window. The fresh air felt good on my face. I thought about making myself a nice sandwich
as soon as I got home.
As I looked at the
oncoming traffic, it looked like the car in the opposing lane was in my lane
coming straight at me. I figured the
driver was passing another car and would get back over in the other lane. But as the car approached, I realized that it
was staying in my lane and going even
faster than it was before. My body
filled with the shock of panic as I quickly considered what I should do.
“I can’t pull over on
either side or I will go into the ditch!
I’m going 55. I can’t slam on my
brakes because there is a big truck behind me!”
I gently pressed the
brakes in hopes of softening the blow, but in that split second, I was aware
that I was about to be in a head-on collision.
I thought I was about to die.
“Jesus, help me!” was
all I could scream as I braced myself and gripped the steering wheel
tightly. Suddenly, the windshield was covered
with what looked like a pure white sheet.
I could no longer see out the window, and as I looked closer, I saw the
fine lines of where the feathers pressed against the glass. I knew in my spirit that an angel was
embracing the vehicle, and I could see the shape of the wing against the
windshield. I could not see the angel’s
face for it was above the windshield.
All I could see was a little part of the angel’s chest and the wings
that spanned the whole width of the windshield.
When the impact
occurred, my car spun around two or three times and about twenty images of my
childhood flashed through my mind in color.
Then it was gone and everything was still.
I looked around and saw
the other car and the truck that was behind me.
A man was walking toward me from the truck. I was still in shock as I tried to process
mentally what had just occurred. I
decided to go check on the other person, and I started to get out of my
car. The man that was walking toward me
stopped me.
“You can’t go over
there,” he said, gently leading me back into my car. I sensed by the look on his face that the
other driver was probably dead.
The ambulance arrived,
and the paramedics asked me a series of questions.
“Where do you feel
pain, ma’am?”
“The only thing that
hurts me is my foot.”
I was transported to
the hospital for some diagnostic testing.
When the MRI results came back, the doctor gave me the news:
“The bad news is that
you will need surgery immediately because your foot was crushed. But the good news is that you have no
internal injuries whatsoever. You should
feel very lucky that you walked away from a head-on collision at such a high
speed with nothing more than a foot injury.”
I know why I survived
that accident, and luck had nothing to do with it. After the initial recovery period, I was
unable to return to work. However, I was
able to receive disability compensation.
This gave me the opportunity to be available to care for my parents full
time at the end of their lives. I am
very grateful to be alive, and I cherish the time that I was able to spend
caring for my parents. I will never
forget what I saw in that split second before the impact. Every time I think about it, I am reminded of
God’s great love for us, and my heart is filled with awe because I know where
my help comes from.
Author: Carolyn Pregana
Acknowledgment: I want to thank my daughter-in-law Jaylin Palacio
for writing this story for me.
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