The Day After

When I first woke up after the accident it was quiet. No one was awake yet. The house was silent. I cried. Then I went upstairs to see if my parents were here yet. I knew they wouldn't be because they would have had to leave at about 3am to get there by this time. They weren't here yet. I went back downstairs and went back to sleep. Sleeping was hard. My left shoulder was really banged up from the seat belt. My right ear was sore and bruised. The back of my head had a big gash on it and was sore. I had to sleep on my stomach and left side of my head. Granted I usually sleep that way but I couldn't move very much and I was very sore.

When I woke up a few hours later I could hear people upstairs. I cautiously crept up the stairs, not sure what I'd see. There were two neighbors sitting and visiting in the living room. When they saw me they got up and hugged me and we all started crying. This went on for a few hours with a steady stream of my friends from the neighborhood. It was so nice to know that people cared so much about us and were coming to visit so quickly. One of Calvin's best friends grandparents had also brought over several bags of groceries and stocked the fridge!

I couldn't believe the people that knew what had happened already. They weren't the usual church people, it was my friends. This terrible news didn't travel through the usual church grapevine, people called my friends and let them know what was going on. I was so thankful for my friends coming and visiting me.

I cried so much that first day. When I woke up and looked in the mirror my eyes were swollen. I kind of thought that maybe something was wrong with them. I'm not a crier and for my eyes to be swollen from crying was something I'm not used to seeing. Then my hair was another matter completely. I mentioned I had a big gash on the back of my head. From the front I looked disheveled, like I had a bad night sleeping, but not too bad. My mom did mention my hair was lighter from all the dirt and dust. But when I turned around the back of my hair was all tangled and matted from blood and dirt. And then my clothing was another story completely. I came home in a hospital gown and scrub pants. My mother-in-law had given me a different t-shirt to wear, but that was it. But I didn't even care what I was wearing or how horrible I looked when I visited with people that morning.

I was just thankful that friends were coming to visit, family was coming to stay with me, and someone was taking care of my family because I couldn't right then. So much food was brought over and the vast majority of it was eaten. I had 25+ family members and they were fed. My brother-in-law was a little disappointed. He loves our local hamburger joints and had to go eat by himself. This trip was unexpected for everyone and I'm sure everyone was on a tight budget. Everyone was thankful for the meals. I was amazed by the amount of food brought over and the caring and love shown by everyone around us.