2/3/14 RMB August
27th 1967
Dear Rita Mae
Brown,
When playing
with our gifts sometimes we get carried away. I find the more significant a
situation is, the clearer the resonance. I try to be careful, but sometimes I
overstep. Teddy said go for it. And I did.
She had
mentioned “the accident” enough times for me to know it was a serious event in
her life. She also said she had a horse. So when I asked if I could find the
details on my own, and she allowed it, I wondered if it had been a riding
accident. That didn’t feel right. When I concentrated on it, I got that it was
a car accident, someone ran a stop sign, there was impact on the passenger
side, a female, either her or a passenger was hurt on that side, there was
someone else dear to her in the car, something pushed into her right side,
possibly a steering wheel, there was something about her school, there were
emotional words spoken at the scene by someone that looked at the people in the
car, before they were removed, there was someone that knew her there before her
family arrived, and so on.
Then she
wrote the actual details and sent them to me. I was speechless. Maria read both
my insights and her details, then commented “All I can say is Holy Smoke! And
as for you…right on”
I was playing
with something deadly serious, an accident caused by another driver, in a car
with no brakes, running a stop sign. Teddy was the passenger who took the brunt
of the impact. The pressure on her side was from both cars that had been
crushed so badly that they landed in her lap, first the dashboard of her car,
with the other driver’s car atop of that. In her words, she “took out the
windshield” with her face. She knew one of the first responders from school,
but it was the other driver that looked at them crushed in the car and spoke at
the scene. They took her to UCLA, the hospital associated with her school. Her
fiancé, far less injured, was driving. She remained conscious through much of
the ordeal.
No one
expected her to make it. They let her lay on a gurney while handling other
cases that they knew would make it, a kid with a snake bite for one. When they
called her mom, they asked for photos so they could reconstruct her daughter’s
face. There were many injuries. They opted not to amputate her leg that night
and then again later when infection set in. They didn’t even realize the other
leg was broken because they were so busy trying to put together the worst of
the two.
This happened
on August 27th in 1967, just after her 21st birthday. Her
mother became her nursemaid and she recovered. She went on to sing and dance
and entertain for many years. The first time I saw her, I said “I don’t see any
scars”. She said “They are there. I know where they are. So, I can see them.”
Some people
who face the greatest challenges become those who appreciate life the most.
Teddy is one of those people. She has begun the writing of her life’s story.
There are many more details about this one event that I will leave to her to
reveal. I am honored by her friendship.
Driving home
tonight, I passed cars, buildings, animals and such, along streets lit by
occasional street lights. Could I name what I passed, an hour or a year from
now? Yet vivid visions of someone else’s accident a half century ago appeared
when I called to them. Whatever we know, we know for a reason and I am
searching for ways to understand it all. I am grateful for Teddy and her
willingness to join in this exploration.
And to you
for listening,
Loraine
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