Thanksgiving

The day started off rather uneventful. Bill went out hunting for a bit while I cooked a few of the dishes for the evening's celebration and put the finishing touches on the cleaning around the house.

Bill got home, made his famous "sweet potatoes", we hit the showers, got ready and off we went to his sister's house (in Merton) for round one of the Thanksgiving celebration.

On our way we stopped to get gas, which was probably a very good thing. As we continued on with our journey chatting a bit, we heard a rather loud smash and turned our attention to the road ahead of us to see that we had just avoided being a part of an accident. We saw the car 2 cars in front of us, a Geo Metro, finish it's spin and come to a stop in the middle of the road, while the Ford Explorer ahead of it slowed and pulled to the side of the road.

Being the type of person I am, I yelled for Bill to call 911 as I jumped out to rush to the car, of which there was about HALF of left. I of course was the first to arrive, and I opened the driver's door to see the smoke from the airbags pour from the car. I wondered what kind of condition the driver would be in, there was SOOO much damage to the car. Surprisingly enough, he was somewhat coherent, with a cut on his head and what appeared to be minor injuries. Two additional people came running to the car, a couple, one a nurse, the other a med student. Between the 3 of us we tried to keep the driver in the car. He wanted to get out and had no idea what had happened. In the back of his car I saw a number of beer cans (however they looked full and I didn't smell any alcohol).

Suddenly we noticed the second party, the one that was in the Ford Explorer, had tried to come see what happened, and had nearly collapsed in the process. The couple rushed to his attention, soon to find out the guy was not only injured, but had prostate cancer and was undergoing Chemo, complete with a port in his chest. He was doubled over in rough shape.

Luckily within minutes a first responder was on the scene, and a number of spectators were helping direct traffic. A few minutes later there were 2 ambulances, 2 or 3 firetrucks and about 5 police vehicles. There had to be at LEAST 10 firefighters/EMT people swarming around.

As it went down, it appears the second vehicle (the Geo Metro) actually REAR ENDED the Ford Explorer. How that happened, none of us had any idea. The Ford Explorer didn't appear to have been turning, nor did they tap their brakes. . . . .the Geo Metro appeared to have just plain ran into him.

As we sat pinned within the police cars, ambulances and firetrucks, we reflected on how it only takes a moment for a person's life to change. Just a moment of inattentive driving can change everything. Luckily in this case it appears the people will live to tell the story. Now that's something to be thankful for.