Split Second

Family picture taken the first Easter after the Accident
(notice the patch my dad wore)

The year was 1970, Simon and Garfunkel topped the charts with "Bridge Over Troubled Water", Nixon was still in the White House and the Vietnam war was nearing its final years. As a nine year old kid, I was enjoying my first day of Christmas vacation by riding around on my blue banana bike taking pictures for a photography project. While I was working on that, my parents had decided to get some work done on our almond ranch. As I rode up into the ranch compound my parents were in the process of jump starting our tractor with our El Camino. My dad sat on the tractor with my mom in the El Camino approximately 50 feet apart at a diagonal. I was sitting on my bike at a 30 degree angle from the diagonal created by the tow strap, approximately 30 feet from them. Little did I know that in a split second everything about my life was about to change.

As my mom revved the engine, and the elastic tow strap stretched and became taut, it actually broke free from the bumper of the El Camino and shot like an arrow across the compound, straight at my father and struck him in the face. I remember sitting on my bike, watching the whole thing, incredulous at what was happening before my eyes. I was frozen as I watched my mom run from the El Camino to my father and take off her mustard yellow jacket and tell him to hold it to his face. There was blood everywhere and that was all she had to give him to try and stop the flow. She helped him off the tractor and walked him to the El Camino. Once she sat him down she ran into the house and called the hospital to say we were coming. I am still frozen on my bike as she runs back out of the house and grabs my hand while we ran to get in the El Camino with my dad. Unfortunately during the preceding 5 minutes my mom had left the ignition on in the El Camino and the battery had died. She then had to get us all out of the El Camino and transfer us to our family station wagon. She put my dad in the back seat with me up front with her. Curiosity is strong in a nine year old child and I tried to look back at my dad and see what had happened to him. I remember my mom grabbing me and putting my head down in her lap and telling me it was best not to look. This was before cell phones and 911, so with only a phone call ahead to the hospital my mom drove the distance from our ranch to Modesto in only 15 minutes, a trip that normally would take us over 30 minutes. I seem to remember a police officer pulling us over and then leading us on but that was 40 years ago and that is the single memory I am not sure of. By the time we got to the hospital my dad had lost so much blood it was impossible for him to move from the car to the wheelchair without assistance. And then as fast as the accident had happened he was gone and my mom and I were left standing there alone.

Fortunately for my dad, a young surgeon was on duty who was just back from Vietnam. We learned later the tow strap had literally wiped the nose off my fathers face and damaged his right eye. The surgeon was able to sew his nose back on and left the eye to see is there would be any possibility for sight which as time proved would not happen. He was in the hospital for much of the Christmas vacation and recovery was slow and painful, due mainly to his eye which over time started to abscess. Funny what you remember even after all this time. The Peterson's coming to get me and staying at their house during which they gave me a "lifesaver book". I remember my Grandma coming in to tell us that more than likely my dad would loose the sight in his right eye.

More than anything I remember my mom's bravery and strength. Many of you know my mom recently went to be with the Lord, that is why this post has taken so long. This single shared experience defined my mother for me. In her later years I don't think many people saw this side of her as if this one single moment changed both of us in a split second.