Have you ever had something so remarkable happen to you that you never told another soul because you knew how it would sound? This is one of my true stories. I don’t believe I’ve ever told anyone this story, but I think about it often enough you’d never guess it happened about 50 years ago.
In the 1970s, we’d bought a house close to Carrollton. There was a little street called Linda Lane that cut through from Hwy 113 to Hwy 27. Depending on my mood on any day, I took that little street twice a day to and from work and at least once each weekend day.
One morning, I was at the stop sign to cross Hwy 27 to Linda Lane. The sun was so bright and at such an angle, I didn’t realize until it was too late that I had pulled directly into the path of a speeding dump truck.
To this moment, I remember “clear as day” the split second everything went completely dark. It happened so fast I didn’t have time to react or be afraid, and the truck driver never had a chance to touch his brakes or blow the horn. He was so close and was in such a big truck to block the morning sun so completely it was like sudden nightfall. His truck’s shadow totally covered the little VW Rabbit I was driving.
It was after I turned my head slightly to see that truck at my passenger door and a blinding flash of sunlight(?) from somewhere that I have no more memories until I found myself sitting on the side of Linda Lane shaking so hard I had to wait a minute to keep driving the less than a mile I had to get home.
The most prominent memories about that day are that flash of sunlight and the sickening realization I was almost nothing but a little light blue spot on the grill of somebody’s ultra class vehicle.
I don’t know why I wanted to tell that story today. But as I said, I think about it often enough to acknowledge in my heart that miracles DO happen. TO THIS DAY, I don’t know how or why I survived. But I do know WHO to thank. 🙏
I’m sure this was a boring story to many of you, but thank you for letting me tell it. And I think that story has served to remind me over the years of the multitude of times I never knew I was spared some horror because of Grace.
