Late One October Night by Sue Schaenzer

It was late October, nearly Halloween day. She was driving, ever so slowly, out of town. The lights were few and darkness made it tough to see the road ahead. But she did notice distant headlights approaching, way down the lonely road. Almost reaching her turn on Easy Street, she noticed the bright headlights had moved closer toward her lane. For a moment, she thought the oncoming vehicle was also turning in front of her, down Easy Street. But now, the headlights had crossed the center line and came straight toward her, so she screamed.
Her next memory was of sitting in her Chevy Terrain on the opposite side of the road, facing the opposite direction. The overwhelming burnt rubber scent from the deployed airbags made her want to get out. As she pushed open the car door, it creaked.
“Call 911, call 911,” she muttered.
She leaned across the front seat of her car, searching for her purse. It had fallen to the floor and was hidden beneath a limp airbag. Reaching into her purse’s pocket, she retrieved her cell phone.
She then paced around the car, slightly limping.
“I was just involved in a head on collision,” she informed the dispatcher. As she described her location, a young man appeared and peered into her car.
“Is anyone hurt?” he asked.
“You’re drunk!” she retorted.
“No I’m not!”
The dispatcher interrupted and strongly urged her not to speak to this young man. Finally, she heard the sharp repeating shrill of sirens. The cop car arrived first. The police officer asked if she was alright as he rushed past toward the other vehicle, a pickup truck.
“Yes,” she replied.
The officer came back and said she didn’t look alright. She was still limping and had a large bruise by her ankle. In due course, he had asked her three times if she wanted an ambulance. She declined each time as she was in denial of anything being wrong. When she called her husband to report the goings on, he said “Why not call an ambulance?”
So, she finally relented. Meanwhile, the officer suggested she sit in the back of his police car while waiting for the ambulance. She acquiesced.
When the ambulance arrived, she felt an overwhelming peace. The peace of God. She knew He was with her always and therefore remained serene. By trusting Him, her fears subsided.

The ambulance stopped in the middle of the road. A female EMT escorted her on board. Two more female EMT’s waited inside. One of them went out to assess the damage to her car. This EMT returned, strongly urging her to go to the Emergency Room, based on her observation as to how severe the damage was to the car. They then handed her a hospital gown and explained that all patients taken to the ER room had their clothes cut off. To avoid that, she undressed and placed her jeans, shirt, shoes, underwear, bra and later, her cross necklace, in a plastic bag.
Then they snapped on a neck brace and helped her lie flat on a portable bed. These amiable EMT’s engaged her in conversation until they reached the hospital.
Several hospital attendants rushed out and hurriedly grabbed her gurney, wheeling it inside. The hospital’s overhead shining lights jolted her wakefulness. The commotion began when they reached the actual Emergency Room. As she lay still, glancing about the room a group of blue scrubbed hospital workers burst through the double doors and surrounded her. The head Doctor approached her and asked if she was in any pain.
“No”, she said.
“My name is Dr. Steve Shaw. What is your name?”
“Sue,” she feebly replied.
He further questioned her to recite her birth date and if she realized what had just happened to her. Meanwhile, the others were touching and gently moving her legs, her arms and her body in search of injuries. Within minutes, it seemed, they were gone.
She remained all alone in the barely lit room.
Not long after, an intense young man, clad in blue scrubs, approached my left side and introduced himself. He then grasped my left arm and hand to inform me that a teeny tiny bone was broken in the palm of my hand, most likely caused by the impact of the air bags. He spoke fast, asking her what color she’d prefer for the cast. When she chose red, he began wetting and shaping strips of moist, cold plaster up and down her left forearm and hand. The plaster hardened quickly and the young man bragged that his casts were best. He’d done this long enough to know how to comfortably shape and form them. She was lucky he was on duty, he said.
Finally, around 3 a.m., her husband was ushered into the room. He had sat in the waiting room for two hours, but had enjoyed watching the hectic pace and ongoing trauma of people constantly coming and going. Shortly after he came and pulled up a chair, the first responding police officer arrived.
He asked her more questions and jotted notes on his clipboard. The officer informed us that when he initially approached the other driver’s vehicle, the driver was asleep at the wheel. His alcohol level had tested three times higher than Wisconsin’s legal limit. The officer didn’t notice any skid marks on the road, either.
Her husband and the officer didn’t stay long, so she was left completely alone for the rest of the night. She was told there were no hospital rooms available. All night long she laid there, her eyes closed, never once falling asleep. Occasionally, she heard outside noises… a woman sobbing next door, a patient being rushed into an adjoining room.
And as she lie awake pondering her fate, she felt a calmness from being in the presence of God. She faithfully believed her current situation would improve, in His time. And it did.