June 28, 1985
Written by Luz Leigh
For some reason I looked at the calendar and
realized this weekend marks the twenty-third
anniversary of the accident that changed our
family’s lives so drastically. Around 1:00 a.m.
the phone rang that Saturday morning. It was the
local hospital calling to tell me my
sixteen-year-old daughter, Heather, had been
involved in a one-car crash on a nearby road.
It is with a thankful heart that the Lord has
blotted out some of those terrible memories, but
one memory will never go away. The sight of the
medical helicopter, known to us as Life Flight,
lifting from the heli-pad of the local hospital.
“There goes my baby” was the only thought in my
head at the moment. I knew it was necessary for
me to let go and let the medical staff care for
her.
Soon it would be determined she had numerous
hairline fractures in several vertebrae; two were
out of place, necessitating traction tongs to be
attached to her head with large screws. Those
screws protruded about three inches from each side
of her head. Weights would be attached in an
attempt to bring the vertebrae back to their
correct alignment.
I can see her later with the body brace and halo
brace because the tongs and weights didn’t work;
later the doctor would inform us the halo brace
was not working either, so surgery would be
required.
I watch as she attempts to feed herself without
success because of the paralysis in the right arm
and hand. The memory of her standing by the door
to her room on the twenty-first floor of St.
Luke’s Hospital in preparation for her home
going….18 days after her arrival there is one of
the most pleasant memories.
But I suppose the most vivid memory that always
crops up, is of the night she and I came to the
realization that God had something in mind for her
and for me as a mother. I turned to the Word of
the Lord as my source of strength during those
long days and nights. It was during that time of
our lives that my daughter and I became friends.
We had always loved each other, but we came out of
that traumatic time knowing we were more than
daughter/mother. And to this day, we are best
friends.
It is with regret that she lost some of the young
people whom she thought were her friends in July
1985. But she realized who her true friends
were. She saw her two older brothers in a
completely different light; no longer were they
“sibling rivals”. And she saw her daddy, the man
with the rough hands from years of working in the
fields or on the ranch, stand by her bedside and
weep openly when he saw her the first time lying
in the hospital bed completely helpless. As he
sat by her bed for hours, rubbing her legs when
they ached, she felt not the roughness, but
gentleness.
But what she saw not was her mom who would closet
herself in the bathroom, run the water, pretending
to be “doing laundry”, so her weeping and sobbing
could not be heard. Mom was to be the strength
for the family and she would not let a crack in
her shield of strength show through.
Many hours I read the book of Job as we waited for
improvement in Heather’s health during what seemed
like an eternity. As with the prophet Job, I can
say “My ears have heard of you but now my eyes
have seen you.” Job42:5
So this weekend, I shall again, as I have every
year since the accident, read the Word and lift
prayers to the throne of Grace, for His goodness.
To the grave of her daddy I will go and say a
prayer of thanksgiving for the man who stood by me
in so many of the hard times.
God was so good to us in the summer of 1985 and HE
is still good.
