Accident Claims 4 Lives

An accident happened about a mile and a half away from my home. One occured at 4am, early Saturday morning. At the same site, about 12 hours later, two visitors to the fatal morning crash were run over by a car and died. What a tragedy. The teens were ages 14 through 16. I don't know any of the children personally but I know their families.

I'm taken back to a fateful night 12 years ago when in that same area, I was involved in a car accident that could have easily ended my life. We thought joy-riding would be a great way to end our Sunday evening. I had every intention of getting loaded that evening. The driver was already drunk and foolishly, I got into the car.

There were five of us and we were riding a dropped, black '78 Lincoln, refurbished with a corvette engine. We rode around for hours and I remained totally sober. It was 1030 in the evening and I had a gnawing feeling to go home. The driver was upset that I wanted to go home so soon but obliged my request.

The roads here have lots of curves because the road follows the natural outline of the coast. The driver was taking the curves so fast. Every bump in the road would cause sparks to fly from beneath us due to the bottom of the car slamming the asphalt. I can't even pretend to tell you that I was having fun on that ride home. Just less than two miles away from my home, we took a blind corner on the wrong side of the road. To avoid crashing into an oncoming car, the driver pulled hard to get back in the right lane and headed straight for the light post.

I distinctly remember EVERYONE passing out as I looked around me in those quick seconds before impact. My heart dropped because I felt that my life was TRULY going to end and I felt so ill prepared to meet my maker and give him an accounting of how useless my life had been.

I was TOTALLY conscious when the huge '78 Lincoln slammed into the utility pole. I sat in the back, in the middle and the impact caused me to fly forward into the dashboard and windshield then fly to the rear windshield and dash. I was cut and bruised and TERRIFIED but still alive. Samu, one of my dearest friends in my whole entire life, had been seated next to me and he quickly thrusted me out of the passenger window. (Sidebar: If you google '78 Lincoln - you'll see that it's a huge car with just two doors.)

I landed in a mangle of tree branches but I was glad to be out. I assisted the other two from the back of the car. The driver and the front passenger were trapped in their seats, smashed up against the dash. Upon my exit, the utility pole had snapped in half. It was my fortune that the pole landed on the opposing side of where I had landed in the trees. The wires were live electric wires and I had escaped that as well.

All five of us had been spared that evening. The driver works a fish boat in Seattle. The front passenger, my Mishie is an angel in heaven as she lost her life in 2001 to cancer. Samu -- my superman -- is married with a daughter and just purchased his first home in Oakland. Toe (pronounced Toe-way) is married with 4 children and just moved back to Hawai'i from the Bay Area. Then there's me.

Here I am with a purpose. With an intense knowledge that the Lord has spared me for a very specific reason. It will be my mission to seek out what I can contribute to the world.

“Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure! It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us…

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us – it is in everyone.”

–Marianne Williamson