September 7, 1992

Many of you will not remember September 7, 1992, but i do as it is a day that is forever etched in my memory. Even after 20 years!

The day began like any other day. As a wife and mother of a seven month old baby boy, i woke up to the smiles of a bouncing baby ready to tackle the day. We had a big day planned as we were going to spend the day at one of my favorite places. We always called it "The Farm" and many Sunday afternoons and holidays as i was growing up was spent there with our entire immediate family.

It was the opening weekend of Dove season and the guys were going to take advantage of the wide open spaces and go hunting while us ladies cooked up a family dinner and just hung around the old farm house.

My parents, husband and baby boy loaded into one vehicle and headed towards "The Farm" making a few stops in Woodward to pick up some groceries that we needed for dinner. Everything was going great until we topped a hill on a narrow dirt road just a few short miles from our destination. The noise was loud and everything happened in a blink of an eye. We had met another vehicle head on. This was at the beginning of the cell phone days so not many people had them, including us. My Dad and Husband struggled to walk the quarter of a mile to a local farm house despite their injuries to call for help. No one was home at this farm house so they had to break a window to get in to use the phone to call for help. Help arrived and we were all taken to the hospital where we were attended to and received treatment appropriate to our injuries. As for the people in the other vehicle, well, they both were not as fortunate as us and one of them did not make it. We did not know it at the time, but these people were family friends and had they had just came from "The Farm" and had been visiting with our family just prior to the accident.

My family told me some time later about the visit they had with them that day. It was a mother and daughter who lived just a half mile from "The Farm" and had for many many years. They were down visiting as the daughter was selling magazines. She was a Senior in High School at the time and they were raising money for one of her school functions. The mom had been making Friendship Bread and had brought a starter to my Grandma. They visited there for a while and the mom who had suffered from asthma for quite some time was having trouble breathing that day and made the statement that she didn't know how long she could go on living like that. They loaded into the car upon finishing their visit and was heading to call upon other neighbors when they met us on that narrow road at the crest of the hill where the mom went to be with her lord.

Everyday is a gift from God and he has a plan for each of us. God spared us that day and i firmly believe it was because he had things for us to do. It just was not our time. I hope you take time today to tell your family and friends just how much they mean to you and how much you love them. Things can happen in a blink of an eye and you may never get another chance.

Also please remember to wear you seat belts and put those babies in a child safety seat! It saves lives!