2 years ago today

June 11, 2007

John & I had just arrived in Georgia to pick up some antiques and visit with his family. Tori was at Governor's school(in Conway) and Meg was in Conway having just finished her freshman year in college and had been shopping for her first house she moved into that May. Meg called me to talk about the baby shower we were throwing for her cousin in August....we chit chatted and were coming up with several ideas. We were going to have it at her house, she was telling me about the food she would prepare and then all of a sudden all I heard was.....


...her take a deep breath and say...."Oh" and then this LOUD crash and then all I could hear was the horn blowing......

.....I started screaming her name....Meg, MEGAN....MEGAN!!!!! I didn't know if she could hear me or not....I kept saying how much I loved her and to hang on everything would be OK. God be with her I prayed!

.....I could hear people talking but it was faint. The sound of the horn was drowning everything out. It sounded like a lot of people.

.....I was helpless....all I could think about was I was listening to my child die and there was nothing I could do about it.

After 5 minutes the connection went dead. I was devastated...I couldn't hear anymore and my heart just sank deeper. I just held John and cried. Praying to God that my little girl would be alright.

My phone rang a few minutes later, I answered it and it was a man who had witnessed the accident. He said, Meg was alright, banged up and bloody but the paramedics were there and they were working on her. He told me that despite everyone saying stay put...she climbed her little body out of the car and said, My Mom...I was on the phone with my mom....please call her. That's when the man stepped in and called. He also said when she was half way out...she climbed back in to get her purse.

I could hear Meg in the background yelling, "Don't shave my head....please don't cut my hair.....the paramedic was telling her to calm down it was all going to alright. I'm freaking out...wondering what is wrong with her head!!!?

The next 1/2 hour or so John was on his phone with the police officer and I was on mine with the paramedic....they both told us that it is a miracle she is alive...

Meg failed to stop at a 4 way stop and was hit on the drivers side by a 2002 Ford F 250 that was going 40 mph.



When he hit her it pushed the car 30 feet and it hit a tree on the passenger side.

Here is the tree.

Although Meg was the only person in the car she DEFINITELY had a heavenly passenger with her. I believe it was my dad that was there and pulled her out of that seat belt. See, Meg was buckled up but somehow ended up out of the belt and wedged between the two front seats!! The seat belt was still buckled! The police officers told us they had no explanation for it.



Both Meg's car and the truck were totaled!! While she was at the hospital her friend, Jody, stayed on the phone with me the entire time. Her roommate, Marianne was by her side. Jody told me what they were doing, x-rays, pulling glass out of her hair, Meg yelling "don't shave my head", etc. I heard the doctor come in and say "good news nothing is broken...you are one lucky young lady". I remember just crying again. John and I packed up and drove the 10 hours back home to be with Meg. All I wanted was to hold my daughter and see for myself that she was OK.

We had left our house at 5:45 am on June 11th....we returned home on June 12th at 5:45 am....it was a LONG night.

Gathering all her belongings from the car.

She was extremely sore the next day. She could barely walk. She received 6 staples in her head....she had chemical burn on her nose (which took some of the skin off) from the air bag...and she had over 50 small cuts on her face and arms from the windshield shattering.

One Lucky Girl

I thank God for keeping her safe and for having a guardian angel in the car with her that day. It has been two years and I still think of it often. I have a very hard time talking on the phone with her and her sister while they are driving. I have actually cried the entire time I have written this post. All those memories flooding back have been hard to relive.