11 Year Old Kelsey Tells All
This week marked 15 years since the “Big accident”. The “Big accident” being a massive car accident that I was in when I was 11 years old; where I walked away with a pretty big scar across my forehead and a permeant reminder of God’s love for me. I’ve written and shared this story before, on Myspace…Oh, Myspace *RIP*, and also on a Facebook note, but not in a formal and/or official setting, such as a blog. Until today! Disclaimer: If you don’t like long, slightly frighting yet totally awesome God stories, then you may wanna skip this post.
(Our poor, poor van…)
I actually wrote out the whole story when I was 11, so in the words of 11 year old Kelsey, here’s how that day went…
(NOTE: My current thoughts and extra notes you will find in this color!)
“On March 3rd, 2000 (Pastor Matt’s birthday), my mom, brother and the Luna girls, Brookie and Celia (friends of ours that we carpooled with), were in a car accident in our new van.
Well, the night before my mom and dad were talking about if she should move all her stuff out of the van and into the little Toyota Corolla. She decided she didn’t want to do that and we would just take the van the next morning. (Later realizing that this was totally a God thing. Had we taken the little Toyota Corolla, Kody (my brother) would have been sitting up front and who knows what would have happened to him and my mom). The next day we went to pick up the Luna’s because we car pulled (or carpooled…so close, little Kelsey!) with them. (Celia actually almost sat where I was sitting, and if she had, she’s a little taller then me and probably would have hit her eyes and could have been blind or worse.)
We were on Central Ave going towards Hazel avenue, then when I least expected it, a car hits us. Celia, Kody and Brookie told me that that I yelled, “Mom, LOOK OUT!”, because I saw the car coming at us (which, to this day, I do not remember saying). My mom tried to get out of the way but the van was too big and the other car t-boned us. We were were all screaming and crying. I remember turning around and looking back at Brookie who was yelling, “Celia, Celia, Celia”, while Celia was yelling, “Mrs. T, where are my glasses?!”. I then turned to my brother, who was to the left of me, and him screaming and crying yet after seeing me his face turning in even more terror! My mom was trying to calm us down as we were all freaking out and very afraid. My mom looked at me and threw a towel at me and said to put it on my head while she was trying to unbuckle herself and come to me (another cool God thing: towels which she had JUST washed so they were freshly clean!). I hadn’t realized anything was wrong with me until that moment when I saw a drip of blood drip down and that’s when I knew I was bleeding. What happened was, I was in the middle section of the van and there was a very hard plastic/rubber handle bar on the back of the seat in front of me and I guess my seat belt didn’t catch me and I flew forward and hit my head on it, really hard. Luckily I was the only one hurt, everyone else just had bruises and whiplash.
While my mom was holding the towel over my head she was trying to unlock the door to my right but she couldn’t, so I felt my way around and unlocked the door. A man told Kody, Celia and Brookie to get out and they went and sat in some ladies car. The same lady brought me a blanket, which was nice. My mom was trying to call my dad and her friend and everybody while still holding the towel on my head and I remember the guy who hit us also came over to see me.
Finally, after what seemed like an hour (an hour is like DAYS to an eleven year old, this we know!), the firemen came and then the ambulance came. They were asking me all these questions, like what day of the week it was, to see if I had any brain damage. At first I said it was Tuesday, but then I looked at my clothes and said it was Friday, cause I wasn’t in my uniform (I was in free-dress). The firemen put this neck brace thing on my neck and it did not feel good. Then I was put on the hardest table thing and strapped down, I could not move at all. When they were moving me into the ambulance I remember looking over and seeing the Cantrell’s van (friends of ours that my mom had called).
Celia and Brookie had to ride with me in the back of the ambulance because their mom wasn’t there, so my mom had to ride in the front of the ambulance. The guy in the back with me was very nice, he even got me to laugh; even though it hurt to laugh. His name was Ken, but they all called him Iceburg. Then my mouth started to get dry and I felt like if I didn’t get some water I was going to throw up so Iceburg put a bowl on my stomach, (not sure what that was going to accomplish though, as I could not lift my head up).
We finally got to the hospital and a lot of people came to see me like Pastor Matt, Pastor Oliver, Pastor Kevin, Auntie Lu, Auntie Kak, Mrs. Luna, Mrs. Carillo, and obviously my mom and dad were there. The doctors told me that in a minute they were going to come in and put an IV in my arm so that when I got my stitches it wouldn’t hurt. Well it hurt so bad when the guy put the big fat needle in my arm. I remember squeezing my dad’s hand. Then they rolled me into this little room to get my stitches.
First, they put this thing in my nose that had air flowing into my nose and a whole bunch of sticky things all over my body to keep track of my heart. It was cool cause I would hold my breath and all the machines would slow down. They were going to put me to sleep but then decided not to, so I was awake for the whole thing. They did put a cloth over my eyes so I couldn’t see what they were doing and they did something to my head that hurt very very very very bad that I cried and almost hit the doctor. It felt like he was putting a staple gun of shots into my head to make it numb. Then after that I didn’t feel a thing. After that my mom came into the room and they said that I must of heard her because I put my hand up when she came into the room waiting for her to hold my hand and she stayed with me the whole time holding my hand praying for me. I got over 100 stitches in my head and I was awake the entire time (like a BOSS!).
After the surgery all I remember is getting dressed, not liking those sticky things that left stickyness on me. We were leaving the hospital later that day and we stopped at Wendy’s to get me a frosty (Duh!) and then I asked if we could go to the school so I could see everyone. Everyone was so happy to see me they were crying. I had a huge thick white bandage over my head. Then we went home and for the next few days I received so many flowers and balloons and get well cards! —- The End”
Even in the midst of a really crappy situation, God’s presence was so apparent that day. Another huge testimony that day was the fact that there just happened to be a Plastic Surgeon at the hospital that I was at and so instead of having an ER doctor give me crappy stitches and having a plastic surgeon fix it later, I was able to have a Plastic Surgeon do an AMAZING job the first time! Being a young girl at the time, walking away with such an ugly scar that wasn’t hidden, but on my face for all to see, it could have been so damaging to my self confidence and identity; but God knew what I could handle. He held me through it all and lovingly pored out His grace and gave me the strength to walk this new journey out and not let something like a scar on my head hold me down!
I don’t even see my scar anymore and people who meet me today probably don’t even notice it! I genuinely don’t even think about it or notice it which is exactly why I’m taking this time to re-post this story and “remember” this day and all that God did for me. It seriously makes me cry when I think about His incredible goodness in my life. It’s amazing to look back now and see how even through something so incredibly horrible, there was still such amazing blessings for me in it, blessings that I never could have even imagined. My life, I, have literally been marked with a testimony of His goodness and I never want to forget that.
