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- Story Listed as: True Life For Adults
- Theme: Drama / Human Interest
- Subject: Family
- Published: 09/08/2013
True story, about a very bad car accident
Born 1934, F, from Cape Town, South AfricaLast year I wanted to write the following story but I felt I was not able to tackle something quite so traumatic concerning my son Gary, who was involved in a horrific motor car accident. After reading Will Neill, author of “Do you fly in your dreams (I do)” I feel more emotionally equipped of “how and why” these weird things happen in times of terrible stress one has to face. This is a true and factual account, which occurred in l980.
I let Gary have my car, a small Dunstan, to take his friends and their mother to the movies as a treat, as their father was away on a fishing trip for the weekend. My youngest son Heath was taken along as Jaws was showing at a special 4:30 matinee for all children and adults who were young at heart.
On the way a very drunken driver traveling at high speed, totally out of control, smashed head on into the front of the Dunstan at such force, half the car landed on top of Gary, who was pushed underneath the engine. The driver had veered over into the approaching traffic on the right side of the road.
His friends’ mother was killed instantly and so was the driver of the other car. It took the emergency services over four hours to finally release Gary and pull him free, barely alive. He lay in a semi-coma for days. I was allowed to stay in the ward to be with him, as he kept calling for Heath. I asked the Doctor if we could bring Heath into the ward as I thought once Gary saw him, he would settle. I kept saying to Gary, Heath is here with you. Heath also spoke to him continually. It must have eventually penetrated into his conscious, because he started to quieten down, and we only left the hospital when we knew that Gary had finally realised that Heath was alive and there with him. We also felt Gary had a better chance to live through his injuries now, which were many but especially a worry, his skull was fractured and the doctors informed us he might have to go to South Africa. However it took another four years but he survived the two breaks in his leg and femur. He has been left partially deaf in the right ear, because of the way the skull was fractured. He is fine and strong now.
Gary’s friends had also survived the accident. All the children were brought to our house. David, Gary’s friend, and the older brother told me his father was away on a fishing trip at a resort called Mete Hills, several hours away. My husband and David left early that morning for Mete Hills. Friends came in to help as I had to stay at the hospital.
After a couple of months, Gary came home.
One afternoon, I broached the subject of why he called for Heath with such persistence, and this is what he said to me.
“Mom, I saw the whole accident from somewhere up above watching the accident scene and the crash below. The Paramedics tried frantically to revive his friend’s mother, but I could see she was dead. They did the same to the driver, but he was also dead. The Paramedics put them onto stretchers and the ambulance took off and away. I saw the emergency services use the Jaws of Life to take the cars off me piece by piece. My friends were standing around crying helplessly and being comforted by the other Paramedics, but I never saw Heath. I kept trying to ask where he was, but no one heard me. I felt myself struggling to get up and look for him. I remember the Paramedics moving very quickly to secure me in the stretcher, as I was carried to the waiting ambulance. Everything started to fade away and then as I heard the door close, I must have had a complete shut down and nothing, until I woke up in the hospital, and saw you and Heath sitting by my bed.”
All those years ago in Zambia we had young educated Canadian Missionaries involved in Christian work for the communities. I asked them if they would consider helping Gary through a very tough time he was experiencing. They spent months healing him emotionally and because he was young he started to get more able to cope physically. It took another three years and a visit to Groote Schur hospital for further operations.
The second part of this story is solely my imagination, ideas I put into writing a rather ironic story about the “how and why”. People generally do not understand an out of body experience, but it is becoming more acknowledged and a popular subject to discuss on talk shows now.
LIFE CAN BE LIVED, IF YOU SO DESIRE, LIKE A GAME OF POKER, ALWAYS READY TO TAKE RISKS.
A formless Ray seemed to be floating above himself. “What the hell is going on?” Aghast he saw that he was in the I.C.U. ward attached to a life support machine. “God I have been in an accident and I am going to die.” No sooner had he said these words, he was standing at the pearly gates of heaven being confronted no less than by a very stern looking Saint Peter.
Rudely he snarled and demanded “send me back to earth and into my body, the gates are only good for comedians making jokes at their shows, you are not real, just a figment of my imagination!”
“No way Jose, I am very real and you are going to face a court of law and be judged to see if you are worthy of turning your life around.”
Ray mumbled through the tube in his mouth, “have you suddenly morphed into a Mexican!”
“Be quiet, I am going to show you the destruction of two people that you are responsible for and have caused the grief that these families are going through right now. Lying in that bed is a young boy fighting for his life, and a mother dead, her life no more there for her children. You have to atone for your recklessness and not think about your selfish self, and the drunk you have become. You Ray are going to have to accept your punishment and the circumstances that have brought you here. It has been decided to arrange a game of poker, an appropriate case chosen to suit your crime. These guys play for high stakes”. Peter informed him.
Suddenly Ray was seated at a card table surrounded by three of the toughest and most brutal looking characters, harden, Mafia type murderers from the nineteen twenty era.
Ray felt his body beginning to sweat with fear. He only knew that Poker was a game based on a players’ ability to win through bluff and skillful tactics and experience. A gruff voice said “You lose this game you and the boy die! The terms and rules are laid down. There are four rounds and the highest card at the end will determine your sentence.”
“God If I lose please save the kid, I would rather die than live” Ray cried in despair.
Ray woke from the coma to hear and see a nurse bending over him with encouraging words.
Ray saw Peter by his bedside, “Peter what are you doing here?”
“You are going to pay out on a big insurance claim, but the boy will pull through, consider yourself a lucky man and now go forth into the world to do some good to earn your pardon!”
Ray, now free of the tubes, began thrashing about in the bed, moaning and groaning, “Is that all you can say to me”?
I did save your soul, be grateful for that small mercy and show you have a heart”, said Peter.
The nurse informed the Doctor on duty that the patient was suffering from hallucinations as he thought he was talking to Saint Peter. “Can you beat that?” The nurse said. We get all sorts in the trauma ward!
True story, about a very bad car accident(Laura Weber)
Last year I wanted to write the following story but I felt I was not able to tackle something quite so traumatic concerning my son Gary, who was involved in a horrific motor car accident. After reading Will Neill, author of “Do you fly in your dreams (I do)” I feel more emotionally equipped of “how and why” these weird things happen in times of terrible stress one has to face. This is a true and factual account, which occurred in l980.
I let Gary have my car, a small Dunstan, to take his friends and their mother to the movies as a treat, as their father was away on a fishing trip for the weekend. My youngest son Heath was taken along as Jaws was showing at a special 4:30 matinee for all children and adults who were young at heart.
On the way a very drunken driver traveling at high speed, totally out of control, smashed head on into the front of the Dunstan at such force, half the car landed on top of Gary, who was pushed underneath the engine. The driver had veered over into the approaching traffic on the right side of the road.
His friends’ mother was killed instantly and so was the driver of the other car. It took the emergency services over four hours to finally release Gary and pull him free, barely alive. He lay in a semi-coma for days. I was allowed to stay in the ward to be with him, as he kept calling for Heath. I asked the Doctor if we could bring Heath into the ward as I thought once Gary saw him, he would settle. I kept saying to Gary, Heath is here with you. Heath also spoke to him continually. It must have eventually penetrated into his conscious, because he started to quieten down, and we only left the hospital when we knew that Gary had finally realised that Heath was alive and there with him. We also felt Gary had a better chance to live through his injuries now, which were many but especially a worry, his skull was fractured and the doctors informed us he might have to go to South Africa. However it took another four years but he survived the two breaks in his leg and femur. He has been left partially deaf in the right ear, because of the way the skull was fractured. He is fine and strong now.
Gary’s friends had also survived the accident. All the children were brought to our house. David, Gary’s friend, and the older brother told me his father was away on a fishing trip at a resort called Mete Hills, several hours away. My husband and David left early that morning for Mete Hills. Friends came in to help as I had to stay at the hospital.
After a couple of months, Gary came home.
One afternoon, I broached the subject of why he called for Heath with such persistence, and this is what he said to me.
“Mom, I saw the whole accident from somewhere up above watching the accident scene and the crash below. The Paramedics tried frantically to revive his friend’s mother, but I could see she was dead. They did the same to the driver, but he was also dead. The Paramedics put them onto stretchers and the ambulance took off and away. I saw the emergency services use the Jaws of Life to take the cars off me piece by piece. My friends were standing around crying helplessly and being comforted by the other Paramedics, but I never saw Heath. I kept trying to ask where he was, but no one heard me. I felt myself struggling to get up and look for him. I remember the Paramedics moving very quickly to secure me in the stretcher, as I was carried to the waiting ambulance. Everything started to fade away and then as I heard the door close, I must have had a complete shut down and nothing, until I woke up in the hospital, and saw you and Heath sitting by my bed.”
All those years ago in Zambia we had young educated Canadian Missionaries involved in Christian work for the communities. I asked them if they would consider helping Gary through a very tough time he was experiencing. They spent months healing him emotionally and because he was young he started to get more able to cope physically. It took another three years and a visit to Groote Schur hospital for further operations.
The second part of this story is solely my imagination, ideas I put into writing a rather ironic story about the “how and why”. People generally do not understand an out of body experience, but it is becoming more acknowledged and a popular subject to discuss on talk shows now.
LIFE CAN BE LIVED, IF YOU SO DESIRE, LIKE A GAME OF POKER, ALWAYS READY TO TAKE RISKS.
A formless Ray seemed to be floating above himself. “What the hell is going on?” Aghast he saw that he was in the I.C.U. ward attached to a life support machine. “God I have been in an accident and I am going to die.” No sooner had he said these words, he was standing at the pearly gates of heaven being confronted no less than by a very stern looking Saint Peter.
Rudely he snarled and demanded “send me back to earth and into my body, the gates are only good for comedians making jokes at their shows, you are not real, just a figment of my imagination!”
“No way Jose, I am very real and you are going to face a court of law and be judged to see if you are worthy of turning your life around.”
Ray mumbled through the tube in his mouth, “have you suddenly morphed into a Mexican!”
“Be quiet, I am going to show you the destruction of two people that you are responsible for and have caused the grief that these families are going through right now. Lying in that bed is a young boy fighting for his life, and a mother dead, her life no more there for her children. You have to atone for your recklessness and not think about your selfish self, and the drunk you have become. You Ray are going to have to accept your punishment and the circumstances that have brought you here. It has been decided to arrange a game of poker, an appropriate case chosen to suit your crime. These guys play for high stakes”. Peter informed him.
Suddenly Ray was seated at a card table surrounded by three of the toughest and most brutal looking characters, harden, Mafia type murderers from the nineteen twenty era.
Ray felt his body beginning to sweat with fear. He only knew that Poker was a game based on a players’ ability to win through bluff and skillful tactics and experience. A gruff voice said “You lose this game you and the boy die! The terms and rules are laid down. There are four rounds and the highest card at the end will determine your sentence.”
“God If I lose please save the kid, I would rather die than live” Ray cried in despair.
Ray woke from the coma to hear and see a nurse bending over him with encouraging words.
Ray saw Peter by his bedside, “Peter what are you doing here?”
“You are going to pay out on a big insurance claim, but the boy will pull through, consider yourself a lucky man and now go forth into the world to do some good to earn your pardon!”
Ray, now free of the tubes, began thrashing about in the bed, moaning and groaning, “Is that all you can say to me”?
I did save your soul, be grateful for that small mercy and show you have a heart”, said Peter.
The nurse informed the Doctor on duty that the patient was suffering from hallucinations as he thought he was talking to Saint Peter. “Can you beat that?” The nurse said. We get all sorts in the trauma ward!
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