November 19

Eleven years ago in 1995, November 19 was also on a Sunday. It was a clear, sunny morning as Dick, Jeremy (age 15), and I drove to church for worship team practice. Sam and Frank were still in bed, each of them scheduled to work that day. Anthony and Lisa were both students at Penn State, Miki was already married and living in Sweden, and Ray had not yet joined our family.

So there were just three of us going to church that day. I remember passing the neighboring Metzler farm where they had just had sale the day before, and feeling sad that they would no longer be our neighbors. And that's about all I remember of that day. Just before we got to our church a car crossed in front of us and hit us head on. (There must have been huge angels sitting on our hood, because we were just in a little Rabbit, and none of us was seriously injured, not even a broken bone! Jeremy suffered a concussion and facial wounds and a broken tooth. Dick had chest and hip wounds. I smacked my face against the dash and had a serious concussion.) Anyway, they tell me that we were taken by ambulance to Lancaster General Hospital, and that I cried and cried when they tried to put me on a stretcher. I was so determined not to lie down. (I'm a control freak even when I'm unconcious. Yikes!) They also tell me that they were worried that I was brain damaged for life, because I kept repeating the same questions over and over all day long. The first I remember was that evening, waking up in a hospital room, feeling horrible. I actually think my sister Janet was there when I woke up. My first question I remember asking was, "Did we have an accident?" My second one, "Was it our fault?" Apparently I asked that many, many times. I also asked if the boys went to work a whole bunch of times too. The funniest thing I remember was later that evening when a nurse was asking me questions to see how well my memory was coming back. She asked who was president of the United States. I tried so hard to think of his name, but it just would not come to mind. I said, "It's the dumbest thing, but I just can't think of his name. But I think his wife's name is Hillary." I have laughed over that so many times.

The next morning Dick and Jeremy came to my room. They were allowed to go home. I, however, had to stay until Wednesday. I was sick on the stomach a good bit of those days, and my face was huge and discolored. Not a fun time at all. When I got home on Wednesday Lisa and Anthony had arrived home from Penn State for their Thanksgiving break. Lisa took over, even insisting on making a lot of the food for our Thanksgiving meal. I will never forget that. We had SO MUCH to be thankful for that Thanksgiving.

And now I will tell one of my really funny stories. After that accident we got a Mercury Sable. It was the first time we ever had a car that looked normal. We had always had old vans and even older Rabbits. I could easily find my car in a parking lot. Until the Sable. Dick and I went to the chiropractor regularly as a result of the accident. One Saturday we got out of his office just in time to quickly go to the Fulton Bank in the K-Mart plaza before they closed at 12 noon. Dick drove up to the door, I hopped out and just made it through the door before they closed. I quickly did the banking, walked out, hopped into the car that was parked at the curb where Dick had let me out, and was SHOCKED to hear a strange man's voice saying, "Wrong car, Hon." I didn't even look at him as I exclaimed, "Oh my goodness! I am SO SORRY!" I scrambled out of there, turned around, and saw Dick sitting in our car in a parking space facing the bank, with the BIGGEST grin in town. He had watched the whole thing with greatest amusement. He told me it was an older man who probably enjoyed having a younger woman hopping into his car!