With Thanksgiving on the horizon I know someone…I’ll call her Alice…who is thankful to be alive.

You see, last Monday Alice was driving and was in a car accident.

A drunk driver hit her.

The impaired driver was arrested. (He was also arrested the night before, having caused a similar accident while under the influence but was out the next day and driving another car.)

The force of the impact caused the seatbelt to cut across Alice’s head under the jaw but it only compressed the carotid artery, it didn’t sever it.

She is convinced more than ever she is destined to do some really important work and all the people at the scene of the accident believe her survival to be nothing short of miraculous. (She was hit many times but was unconscious for all but the first impact.)

She suffered no broken bones or teeth—a fact she is very happy…and thankful… about.

She says it’s the first time in her life she was thrilled to be short and fat—it was one of the factors that saved her life. Her seat must be right up close to the steering wheel for her to reach the pedals, being short her head did not hit the windshield, and having a large abdomen (a by-product of the stress she has endured this past year) she did not move around the interior with the g-forces the same way a thin person would have.

The other saving graces were her seatbelt and the airbags, which exploded on impact (the car that hit her was doing 100+mph on mounting her car’s hood before becoming airborne—his tire tracks can be seen right up to the windshield and the force of the collision tore off his wheel as it hit her windshield!)

She has turned purple from the waist up but her spirits are good.

She quotes Rocky Balboa: “In life it’s not how hard you get hit, it’s how hard you can get hit and still keep moving forward!”

And that’s what Alice plans to do.

Move Forward!

Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My friend
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