Miracles Do Happen!

Do you believe in miracles?  I do.  I've experienced a few in my lifetime.  Some are deeply personal, some I am more open about.  Because I believe in miracles, I appreciate the small miracles and joys around me as often as I can.

Art- secretly hiding far overhead.

And then finding the mirror beneath that allows you to become part of the art!

The beautiful wheat fields making up some of the farmland of Indiana.

Delicious homemade mashup treats- brownie on the bottom, chocolate chip cookie on top.

The gift of music.  And ukeleles.  

Flowers and flower gardens and tucked away gazebos that offer some privacy and rest and peace.

Local wineries, local vineyards.

Strong legs and capable feet that allow me to ride.

Friends to ride with- friends who encourage and push and support.

Having an annual Girlfriend Ride that supports a great cause and that showed me that I can cycle 50K (~32 miles).

The true miracles of the day didn't happen on our bike ride.  The true miracles of the day happened on our drive back home from Columbus, IN to Fishers, IN.  As we traveled up I-65, we witnessed an accident.

An old brown passenger van that was hauling a pop up camper was about 3 cars in front of us.  As we are driving along and relaxing and soaking in the events of the ride we had just completed... the van loses a wheel.  Not the tire.  The wheel.  The wheel flies off into the grass and the van and camper start to fishtail.  Within seconds, the fishtail leads to losing control, into the grass off the shoulder, and then the van begins to flip.  It flips to its side and the trailer flips after it, causing the van to thud to the ground but then flips again.  This repeats on the roof and then on the other side before it all stops.

Smoke is coming up from the van where the wheel flew off.  The wheel is yards away, smoke pouring from it. 

We pull to the shoulder and jump into immediate action.  Paulette dials 911 and hands me the phone.  She's a nurse- an ICU nurse who used to be an EMT.  She jumps out of my van and races to the scene.  Christy whips out her phone and calls 911.  I give info to the 911 operator- "We are on 65 northbound, 1/2 mile from exit 95 for Whiteland.  A van just flipped and there is smoke. No known injuries yet but we haven't reached the van. My friend is a nurse."

I race out of the car to help.  Many people had stopped to help as well.  There are 8-10 people at the van when the side door starts to open.  I call as I'm running to alert the other that the passengers are exiting from the door.  A couple of guys help get the doors open and start helping the passengers emerge.  First, a boy around 8-10 years old.  Then a 12-ish year old boy.  A young teen girl.  All being helped by their dad and the people who have gathered to help.  As we hurry to get them out, one of the helpers notices fuel leaking on the other side of the van and alerts all to the urgency of getting everyone back.  We clear everyone to a safe distance. 

Paulette works to check for injuries.  Christy is still on the phone- now transferred to the State Police.  I'm talking to one of the kids.

Within a minute, an ambulance is there.  I rush to the shoulder and as they pull up, I alert them to which people were in the van and alert them to the report of fuel leaking. 

Then the older boy locks his gaze across the highway.  At this point, we've noticed that he might be autistic.  My concern is that he's going to run across the 4 lane highway- because he's locked in on his mom who was driving ahead of them in a Penske moving van along with 2 other teen girls.  She dashes across the lanes of traffic to the median.  I stop the slow traffic on our side of the highway.  She crosses and her children rush to her and there is sobbing and hugging and holding.

She shares with me that she had been on the phone with her husband when it happened.  She told me that she could hear her children screaming and she saw the van flip... and then she melted down into tears and I held her.

Here's the miraculous stuff...

That van flipped and thudded and flipped and thudded and fishtailed.  The people and stuff inside had to have been tossed about.

No one was seriously hurt.

One boy had a couple of small scratches. 

There were no broken bones, no gashes, no lacerations. 

That ambulance that arrived within minutes?  It hadn't received the call- it had been driving from from another call and just happened upon the scene.

No injuries, a former-EMT-now-ICU-nurse as a first responder on the scene, and an ambulance just happens to be right there.

I definitely believe in miracles In My City!