Response to the 3rd Week of Advent

Finding Jesus as part of the experience
On the early evening of May 24, 1991, my daughter, Tina, and I were attending the county softball semi-finals at Delco Park. Tina was learning to drive so she wanted to drive home after the game. It was sunny and dry. The time on her learner’s permit was running out! At that time, we were living in Waynesville and she was a sophomore at Alter High School. As we pulled out of a stop sign (she was learning on a manual transmission) about a mile from home, a drunk driver rounded the curve, went off the road on the right and overcorrected, going left and hit us head on! Tina died during the airflight to the hospital in Cincinnati, while I was transported to Southview. I have no remembrance of the crash, but awoke a week later in the Intensive Care Unit at St. Elizabeth to learn my daughter had died. I had missed the funeral! My life was changed forever – I was no longer the mother of a daughter. I had suffered many broken bones as well as other injuries.

It is easy to be bitter, to be angry but I learned that prayer was needed to make sense of the events. Working with MADD, I was able to deal with the prosecutor and the defendant. As a result of prayer and research, the other driver entered a plea agreement that I had suggested. When the defense attorney questioned why I would suggest such a plea agreement, I responded that Jesus would want it that way. The defendant had no prior OVI and was a family man. I asked that his driver’s license be cancelled indefinitely. I also had a private reconciliation service that I found very healing.

Since 1991, I have remained active in MADD and we present Victim Impact Panels quarterly for those ordered by the judge as part of the conviction for OVI. Only the presence of Jesus gives meaning to all these events that changed my life forever!