A Beautiful Day, a Crash, and a Thousand Blessings

By Dorothy Megee

On a beautiful day in January, while riding their motorcycle, a young woman pulled out in front of them. They were on a major highway in Florida approximately five miles from their Florida residence. Traffic was heavy and moving at fifty-five miles per hour. The accident was catastrophic and left them near death. This story depicts how they survived through the excellent care of the trauma team at Osceola Hospital and through their arduous journey of coming back. It also describes how their children traveled more than eight hundred miles to step in to deal with hospital personnel and make important decisions regarding their care and survival. While hospital staff could not believe, the first one to reach their bedside was their pastor Dan Hopkins from Virginia. Dottie and Skip were not at all surprised. They believe God orchestrated their survival and recovery through excellent hospital personnel, family and friends. They also believe that God spared the young mother and her three young children from any injuries that day.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9781645157953

Book preview

Chapter 1

After much praying and planning, Skip and I arranged to take off most of the month of January 2016 and spend that time in Florida. Two years prior, we had purchased a small home in a community our friends, Bill and Barbara Taylor, were living in. The Taylors had been there for more than twenty years. Our long-term plan was to become snow birds after we retired. The prospect of downtime excited us. So, after hitching our Harley Davidson motorcycle to our Tahoe, we headed south to Florida, eagerly planning to do some riding with Bill and Barbara.

The first ten days of our stay were cool and rainy, so we used the time to start and complete a significant yard improvement project—digging, planting, edging, and distributing ninety-seven bags of white marble rock. We finished our project on Friday afternoon feeling thankful we were able to complete it before the weekend, and did I mention being tired?

Our yard project completed

We were grateful when Saturday, January 16, brought warmth and sunshine. We decided it would be a great day for a ride and sitting down for most of the day seemed like a good idea as well. Joining up with Bill and Barbara, the four of us set off around 9:00 a.m. to see some of Florida’s countryside (yes, Florida does, in fact, have countryside!). Florida is not just a state of beaches and Disney World. We rode for several hours, finally stopping for lunch where, uncharacteristically, we all ordered milkshakes, something we’d never done before or since. Good friends, good food, and good conversation! Before we knew it, we were back on the road heading for home.

We were riding on Highway #27. Skip and I were in the lead with Bill and Barbara following us on their trike. With less than five miles to go, a car pulled out in front of us. Skip and I both saw the vehicle instantaneously. The last image I had was seeing the back of the head of the driver. He or she was not even looking in the direction of the oncoming traffic. We had no time to think, or brake, or pray. There was no place to escape. The crash was inevitable.

The last thing I remember was the sound of metal on metal then everything went black. I don’t know how long I was unconscious, but when I came to, I realized I was lying in the middle of the highway. The only thing I could see was my friend, Barbara, who was laying just a few yards from me. I realized we were both seriously injured, but we had both survived the initial impact. I had no idea where Skip and Bill were or how bad their injures might be. My mind would not let me think past injuries, and my eyes could not see past Barbara. When the impact occurred, traffic was heavy and moving at fifty-five miles per hour. It was truly God’s protection that kept us from being run over as we laid there in three different locations of an six-lane highway. I learned later from Bill that an eighteen-wheeler had to take the shoulder of the road to avoid running over us.

My pain was so intense. I remember reaching down and touching my left knee, feeling what had to be blood. I desperately wanted to remove the one remaining boot thinking that would ease my pain. It’s funny, before that day, whenever I saw a single shoe in the highway, I had always wondered, How can you lose only one shoe, or in my case, one boot.

I was going in and out of consciousness when a young woman stooped down in front of me. She identified herself as Michele. Michele told me she was a nurse, and she instructed me not to move, and that help was on the way. She also let me know that she had talked to Skip. He was trying to remove his helmet and get up to look for me. His injuries were too extensive. Had she not stopped him from doing so, he could have been permanently paralyzed…or worse. She let me know that she had