She...she wanted to be a secret girl: July 2009

i wanted to go to ruby tuesdays.

we went to outback steakhouse. i will forever be giving jake crap about this.

on the way back to my house we took i-215 heading east. we got on at fort union and once we were on the freeway we rolled up our windows. jake was driving. we were in his pathfinder. i was in the passenger seat changing the music on the ipod. we believe i had my right foot propped up on the dash.

just a few minutes past the fort union on ramp jake wanted to move into the left lane so he turned on his signal and checked his blind spot before he started to merge over. there was a woman in his blind spot so he stayed in the middle lane but she saw his blinker and panicked. she thought he was going to come over without seeing her and so she swerved into the far left lane and then over corrected coming back and came into our lane. i heard her tires squeal but didn't see anything. jake saw her coming and knew it was going to be bad. i believe he said something out loud like "oh shit" right before she hit us, hard, on the drivers side back tire. the way she hit us caused the pathfinder to fishtail out to the right and skid on the tires so we ended up perpendicular to the flow of traffic. the pathfinder then tipped onto my side and slid. miraculously my window did not break. i am thankful i had just rolled it up. that window probably saved my face, my arm, and possibly even my life. after that is hazy for both of us. the skid marks on the car indicate that we rolled at least once and spent some time sliding on jakes side as well but we don't remember that. his window did break but, aside from some glass in his hair and ears, he was not hurt.

the next thing i knew we landed on the roof of the car and slid for several hundred yards. this part is very vivid for me. i remember it very clearly. it is amazing how much your brain can process in such a short amount of time. i remember thinking several things. "No. Not yet." "This is not happening to us." "We are going to hit something on my side before we stop." "I can't believe the air bags didn't go off." and of course, "Is Jake okay? Is Jake okay?" i also remember the sound of metal on asphalt and the smell of the plastic melting.

i was never scared though. there isn't time to be afraid. in that moment you just are.

the car came to a stop all on its own upside down in the far right lane right after the 2800 exit ramp. pretty far away from where we started. we didn't hit anything and no other cars hit us. when we came to a stop the pathfinder was facing the other direction, sort of south west, which means while we were on the roof we spun and did at least a 180. we were both wearing our seat belts. they saved our lives for sure. as soon as i was sure we had stopped i called jakes name and reached out to him. the moment in between asking for him and hearing him say "I'm okay. Are you okay?" was the longest half a second of my life.

As i hung there my bare feet fell down under the glove compartment and something under there was really hot and burnt my feet so i had to hold my legs up which isn't exactly easy. jake quickly turned the engine off and i remember thinking that was really smart of him to think to do that. Several people were at my window then. Jake and i were amazed at how many people stopped to help us. It is good to know that there are still really good people in the world. Jake couldn't get out of his side. It was too smashed. There were at least 5 men at my door asking if i was okay. They got the door open and someone held me to the chair while i unbuckled my seatbelt. I flipped down then and stood up but i was barefoot. My flip-flops flew off in the wreck and were on the roof. The pathfinder was crushed at the place where the roof and the windshield meet so we weren't exactly resting flat on the roof we were more on the windshield so when i went to stand my feet were on the windshield and one of the guys grabbed me so i didn't cut my feet and helped me into my shoes.

It was hard to stand on my own. Once you know you are okay the fight goes out of your body. There was a woman there though who wrapped me up in her arms and walked me to the side of the road and had me sit down while they helped jake out. I sat there on the side of 215 and cried in a strangers arms because i was so afraid for jake. i really wish i knew who that woman was. i wish there was some way i could thank her.

They helped jake out of the car and as soon as he was up and walking towards me i shot up, went straight to him, and he wrapped me up in his arms. The ambulance got there right then, which was really fast. All in all it took them 5 min tops to get to us because they were in the area training and saw the pathfinder upside down. they weren't even the ones responding to the call.

We took jake to the hospital because they were worried about his back but his scans and x-rays were negative for any fractures. i declined medical treatment. i wasn't in shock like jake was or in any pain. i just wanted to be in the ambulance with him. they took my vitals though while we sat on the side of the road. the EMT complemented me on my strong heart. i thought that was kinda funny.

My grandparents came to get us from the hospital and we stayed at their house for the night. I am so glad to have such a good support system here.

Today we are both pretty sore. My right leg is bothering me but its not really bad. Like i said we think i had my leg propped up against the dashboard so it probably hit the door pretty hard when we landed on my side. It is just muscle aches though. Nothing serious.

We went to the tow yard to see the car. There are pictures below. Jake and i cleaned his stuff out and then we just stood there in each others arms and cried for a minute. The sheer impossibility that we walked away with nothing but one bruise and one scratch between us is enough to make anyone cry. We have spent a lot of time being thankful today. We were SO blessed!