November 11, 2009 An Accident

Hi family;

I really don't even want to tell you because you will worry, but we were in an accident on Monday morning.  The road was fine until I came to the s-curve on Highway 27 just before the turn off to Waverley.  Suddenly there was black ice on the road.  I felt the car slide a little under me and then it started fishtailing worse and worse.  Ray grabbed the steering wheel to try to bring it back under control, but we were all over the road.  I felt very clearly that I had to drive it into the ditch to get it off the road and prevent a collision.  I aimed for a spot between posts and sailed off thinking, "This is interesting.  I wonder if we'll die or be seriously injured."

The car had already slowed down a lot but when the front hit the ditch, the back came around and we flipped up on the side facing the wrong direction.  I was hanging in my seat belt and looking down at Ray.  I said, "Are you okay?"  He was and I was.  Then we had to get out of the car.  When I undid my belt, I half-fell on Ray and that was the only time he got mad at me.  He has been really sweet and encouraging and told me I did well and it couldn't have been avoided.

A school bus stopped on the road and called for help as our cell phone had no service.  She waited until the volunteer fire chief came.  (I thought afterwards that if we had left the house a minute later, that same school bus would have killed us.)  Anyway, I knew I was in shock so I sat in the fire chief's car to stay warm and talk about what had happened.  Ray got a ride home where he called the insurance agent and our work.  I waited for the police.  He was really sweet.  He said that he had crashed his bicycle on his early morning ride, so he understood the icy conditions.  Actually there were a lot of accidents, and two fatalities that morning.

When Ray came back in the truck he said that they couldn't get a substitute for me so I decided to go to work, as I wasn't hurt.  We were only an hour late.  My students were pretty happy to see me, as they knew what happened.

On the way to work, I was nervous because the truck did not have winter tires on and is a back wheel drive and very squirrelly on ice.  These words came clearly into my mind, "Your lives are in God's hands."  I realized that we could have died but were spared and that winter tires or not, God would decide when to take us.  I relaxed and have been pretty relaxed since then.

So now we do not have our reliable little car.  I'm almost certain it will be totalled, which is too bad because we just put a new clutch, a new windshield and new tires on it last week.  Now we have a $500 deductible and towing charges and $41 a day storage fees and they probably will give us only a little for our 1999 Toyota with over 150,000 miles.

All this to say that we might not make it to Vancouver for our long-looked forward to visit.  No cuddles with grandkids, no long chats or walks or meals together, no shopping at Famous Foods, no Scrabble with Grace.  Quite sad.

So, don't worry about us.  Our lives are in God's hands, like everyone else's, and things will work out for the best.

Bye and love from Fern and Ray.