“We were on our way to the hospital to deliver our baby. ‘Babe, I’m really excited!’ I looked up. We were going through a green light. Then we were hit. Everything went numb. I tried to unbuckle my seat belt, but it was jammed. I had no way of getting out. My water broke. My husband just lay beside me, lifeless. I held his hand the entire time.”
‘I was 41 weeks pregnant, upside down in a ditch, holding my husband’s hand as he stopped breathing.’: Woman ‘T-boned by drunk drivers’ on the way to deliver baby, loses ‘love of her life’
‘I got rear-ended today. He said he didn’t see us. Am I frustrated? Absolutely.’: Mom says she’s the one who left an accident feeling ‘guilt’ despite it being other man’s fault
“The seemingly nice fella told a fib to the reporting officer. I quickly corrected that nonsense. I’m not mad at him, just peeved he lied to begin with. He seemed distressed and kept apologizing, thanked me and drove off. Then guess who carried the guilt home? I did.”
‘You sure you don’t want to take the truck?’ I heard him start his motorcycle. ‘I’ll be fine. Love you!’ The screen doors shut. My husband walked out of the house for the last time.’ Woman shares emotional journey after husband’s motorcycle accident
“We had a deal. Derek could ride his bike, but he had to text me whenever he arrived at his destination. I checked my phone, fully expecting an ‘I’m safe’ text. Instead, I woke up to a missed call and voicemail from Derek’s phone. My heart instantly went to my throat. ‘Mrs. Lavender, your husband’s been in a serious accident. Please call back.'”
‘Drive carefully. I love you.’ Mom said, hugging us. 10 minutes later, she got a call. It was an unfamiliar number. ‘Your daughter had an accident. She wants you to come.’
“I always worried about her. I had to be a ‘big brother.’ I protected her. We planned an outdoor wedding. This barn had a lovely garden, and a beautiful path to a place I imagine heaven looks like. It was there, we saw my sister again.”
‘Normally she texts us when she leaves practice. We hadn’t heard from her. ‘She was in an accident. She didn’t make it.’ I literally crumbled to the floor screaming.’: Mom says her normal was ‘forever changed’ after losing daughter in car accident
“Our doorbell rang. We opened the door and stood face-to-face with two State Troopers on our front porch. Over and over and over again. My head was spinning. This could not be happening. To us. To HER.”
‘She was at a dead stop in traffic. She looked in her rear-view mirror and saw a car coming full speed behind her. She braced herself.’
“When he finally looked up from his phone, it was too late. I’m sure the message is clear here.”
‘Acid from the airbag burned my eyes. My first thought was, ‘Call Mom.’ I climbed out of my window, dripping in blood. ‘Mom, I crashed the car. I see cops coming. I love you.’
“I walked to my church, 5 miles away in the freezing rain, knowing I may have just seen my father and mother for the last time. I sat in the fourth row. I stared down at the ground, tears still running down my face. I wanted to be able to apologize for what I was about to do.”
‘I was about a mile away from my parents’ house when I saw a pair of headlights coming at me in my lane. I was so scared it was going to burst into flames. I sat in front of the car screaming.’
“I brushed it off and thought, ‘Oh there’s no way I’m pregnant.’ I went to Tennessee for a week for my birthday. I had my cousin buy me a bottle of Jager and I couldn’t even drink, it made me so sick. When I got home, I took another test. Sure, enough I was pregnant.”
‘Shotgun!,’ they yelled as we left. Travis got in the front and Isaac got in behind me. They both fell asleep on the ride home. The next thing I remember is waking up in excruciating pain.’
“In one second, I became the kid from the accident. The boy whose brother died. To the prosecutor, I was the delinquent child who murdered his brother. The guy who survived the wreck that killed his brother.”
‘To the 18 year old kid I stopped, you were minutes away from an unspeakable Christmas tragedy. If not only killing yourself, you were on your way to killing an innocent person.’
“You said you didn’t realize how fast you were going. That’s a lie. You were scared when I stopped you. You were visibly shaking and breathing hard. Unfortunately, you were scared for the wrong reason.”
