I Lost My Family
On April 25th in 2008, I lost half of my family. I was 12 years old at the time and am currently a junior in college. Even 8 years after the car accident at 20 years old I still can’t comprehend what happened. Everything I had known and all I cared for in my childhood was taken from me. It was a normal Friday; my Mom who was 7 months pregnant at the time with who would have been my sister named Sophia, had just picked my sister, her friend, and myself all up from elementary school. I was sitting in the backseat with my sister and her friend and we were stopped at a red-light at a four way intersection. We had only been stopped for about 30 seconds and I heard my Mom yell “oh my god.” These were the last words I would ever hear my Mom say. As I turned around to see what she was yelling at, our car was hit at 60 mph by a drunk driving doctor. Not only was it in the middle of the afternoon, but the irony was that we were crushed by a doctor, a person that we are all supposed to admire. As I drifted in and out of consciousness, I was pinned in the backseat of our small Honda Accord blind. I could not move and was stuck, while not being able to see anything. The impact of the crash caused a concussion so severe that I went blind for 1 hour. My head was sandwiched in between what was left of the backseat and the floor of the car. After about 15 minutes of being stuck like this I was put onto a stretcher. I do not remember much else from the accident besides the feeling of sheer hell and glass spraying onto me from the work the jaws of life did on the roof. No one should experience what I experienced at 12 years old. I awoke at the hospital, still blind. All I kept asking to the doctors was if “my mom and sister were okay.” Nobody would give me an answer, and not being able to see just made it worse. It was not until after I was hooked up to IV’s, a hospital bed, and put into an immediate cat scan to look for internal bleeding and head trauma, that I could finally see. The first person I saw was my Dad. Completely lost as to what had happened and not comprehending reality, the first thing I said to him was “I didn’t even cry when they put in the IV.” But, I had no idea what was yet to come. After hours at the hospital and getting discharged, it was finally time to go home. It took some time but I was finally told the news. My Mom had died on impact during the crash and my sister was flown by Flight for Life to Children’s Hospital where she was hooked up on life support. I don’t remember a lot more of that day but the next day my Dad took me to visit my sister. That day was the last day I was able to see my sister alive, although she was alive only through machines. They cut her life support. I lost my mom, sister, and unborn sister on those two days. My Mom and Dad had only had my sister and I, so I really lost almost everything I had loved. Half of my immediate family whom I saw daily had died on impact. And my mom died just one day before her birthday. I was left to live with my Dad, who divorced my mom two years before the crash. I had never really been close to my Dad either, I was always a mom’s boy, she was everything to me. I still can’t comprehend what happened to this day and there are times where I just sob for hours thinking about them, or go to the cemetery to visit them and just sit by there graves during the night and cry uncontrollably. I have been through a very traumatic experience but I am still pushing through today. I made a bracelet that I wear everyday that says “however long the night, the dawn will break”, and it has the date of the accident on it. I hope for whoever feels down and lonely, they find strength to keep going and know that there are always people who love and care about you. Without faith, strength, support and therapy, I would have never made it this far and where I am today. However, there are times when I still am sad and lost and I turn to this network for support. I am very thankful for the opportunity to share my story, this is the first time I have been publicly able to share this experience. Thank you to all whom took the time to read it and I pray that everyone out their finds the strength to see the dawn of each day.
