Saved

I've had a couple brushes with death in my lifetime, but none so close as the one in the winter of 1983. I was only three years old at the time, but I still think about it every now and then.

My dad decided to take Corinne and I out sledding one day in our suburban neighborhood in Taylorsville. He didn't use a regular sled... he tied a queen size air mattress to the back of his truck and Corinne and I took turns riding around on it.

During my turn, my dad drove up a street that came to a dead end and started to turn the truck around. While we were sitting there, a truck began to back out of a driveway, right in front of where I was laying on the mattress. My dad frantically honked his horn, trying to get the driver to stop, but he just kept coming. The truck backed right over top of me.

My mom had stayed at home and says she remembered hearing the ambulance drive by the house, making her heart suddenly jump with fear that maybe something had happened to us. The only thing I can remember about the whole incident was laying on my stomach on the air mattress, sticking my head out between the two wheels underneath the truck. I don't think I was old enough to even realize something bad had happened. I was taken in an ambulance still wearing my coat that had tire tracks across the back.

I'm sure everyone was expecting me to have some severe injuries... a broken back and who knows what else. But after they checked me out, they didn't find anything. Not a scratch. My parents took me home, but still sure something must be wrong, they took me back to get checked again. Nothing. We still have a picture of me sitting in a chair in that hospital, holding a latex glove blown up like a balloon, and looking very tired.

I don't know why I was spared from harm that day. In my mind I believe the Lord saved me. Why me? I don't know. There have been times in my life when I've felt really dark and alone and I think of that incident and it brings me hope. I like to think that God has something special in store for me, something he wants me to do. He needs me around for something, so I guess I'll stick around and see what he's got up his sleeve.