THE STORY
Monday, May 11th was a busy day. It was the day of the church Mother/Daughter Banquet! In preparation for the big shin-dig, mom had even brought her wedding dress over to my house so I could try it on. We had even joked about me wearing it!
Me in Mom's Dress...
As the afternoon approached, I began the long task of making myself presentable and putting on my face (make up). My phone rang and it was mom calling, probably to tell me what time she would be picking me up and discussing the details of the evening.
"Hello?"
All I heard on the other end was screaming and moaning!
"Mom!!!!! MOM!?!?!?" I yelled into my phone!
"AHHHHHHH!!!" I heard from the other end. "I can't move my legs! Help!"
I put the phone on speaker, ran downstairs to Adam, and looked at him with a confused face. "I think she butt dialed me. What is going on?" I whispered to Adam.
Adam called dad with his phone to find out mom had been in an accident and that was all dad knew. Adam turned Jeeves (our Butler statue that holds the scanner) and we heard the call, "MVA (motor vehicle accident) involving 2 vehicles, 7th and Moore Street. We need assistance transporting victims to JC Blair."
With the phone still on speaker and tears rolling down my face, I listen for the longest 10 minutes and 33 seconds while mom moaned in agony. Some things that she said ranged from...
I can't feel my legs...
I can't move my neck...
Ow, that hurts too bad...*more sobbing*...
&
Where's my flash drive...
Throughout the call, I didn't hang up and every couple minutes would scream at the top of my lungs, "MOTHER!!! Can you hear me?!? MAMA!?!?"
Then I heard mom say, "I need someone to call my daughter, Jill, to tell her that I'm not going to be at the Mother/Daughter Banquet tonight. The tickets are right here, and she can take someone else, and just make sure she gets these tickets..."
I mustered all my strength and yelled, "MOTHER!!!!!!"
It worked, she heard me, "Jill? Jesse is here with me, and he has the tickets."
I replied, "We will meet you at the ER."
THE SCENE
Mom was driving the school van back from a field trip, when she was struck by another car who allegedly ran a stop sign. As a result of the impact, Mom's van was forced into a tree, while the other vehicle came to rest on the front porch of a house after damaging the foundation of the house. Here are some of the pictures...
The house/front porch...
The school van mom was driving...
The tree is still standing...
Pants were cut off...
Know a good seamstress?
Right leg bruises...
Left Leg...still on the backboard...
She had one shoe and one sock...
**Other shoe and sock recovered at the site**
Dad telling mom how much stuff he had to do...
Pain shot...5 hours after crash!
Finally some relief...
Silly face picture...
Her legs hurt so bad she couldn't have anything touching her shins. On the initial x-ray there were no signs of broken bones; however, because she couldn't stand on them, they did a CT scan. It came back clean.
NO breaks...just bruised...
They decided to keep mom overnight because of the pain. The next day was spent sleeping and resting. Her body was EXHAUSTED to put it mildly. When they got her up to walk, she was extremely dizzy and began vomiting. They kept mom another day after her blood pressure dropped really low. There was also the possibility of a concussion as she was complaining of some pain in the neck.
Bruising from the seatbelt...
Johnny, Lindsay, and Korynne stopped by to cheer mom up, even though she spent the entire time with her eyes closed.
Love Korynne smiling here...
Two days later she was discharged...with a final diagnosis of severe bone bruising and whiplash. PTL, no broken bones!
And she walked on her own inside.
Mom asked dad to bring her shorts...
Mom's first thing she did when she got home.
She even got dad to help...
I'm writing the list of everything that mom did when she arrived home from the hospital. It is amazing to me to see her just the day before not even being able to open her eyes to accomplishing the following tasks...
--watered ALL of her flowers
--washed a few dishes
--put a load of clothes in the washer
--walked down the steps (all by herself)
--took a shower
--watered the flowers in the basement
--sat down for a minute
--then began doing schoolwork
Mother sitting...
Mom's Claim to Fame!! (:
Final Saying...
"It nice that the McCracken family and our friends pull together during tough times. It's also nice that they overlook situations that will remain "filtered" from this blog. Right Pastor?? Thank you to all who found my flash drive, my glasses, my scattered money, my Ladies Spring Dinner celebration tickets, my purse, and my missing shoe and sock!" --Cindy McCracken, the Survivor
Thanks so much for all the love, prayer, and support.
