Someone should write this story

Okay, I actually forgot I was supposed to post today BUT, I’m so excited because I have a great story to tell! Interesting how that worked out, huh? It's one of those that makes me think "this would be a great book".

As most of you know, I’m a physical therapist (and those of you who don’t know that… now you do *g*). I love that part of my life because I get to meet amazing people and see them overcome incredible things. This is just such a story…

Larry is sixty-eight and has been married to the love of his life, Barb for ten years. They live on a remote farm outside a tiny Iowa town on a not-heavily-traveled road. A few weeks ago (just before Thanksgiving, actually) they decided to go out on a particularly slick morning. The freezing rain that day had come as a surprise to all of us, including the meteorologists apparently, so there were lots of cars in the ditches.

Two weeks before Barb had seen a bracelet that she loved in a jewelry store in town. It was beautiful and, as is his habit, Larry decided to get it just to make her happy. They headed to town, bought the bracelet and were on their way home on that slick morning. Four miles from their home they came to the bridge they had crossed a thousand times. But that morning it was pure ice. As Larry tells it, they literally slid from one end to the other, praying they wouldn’t hit the side rails… because they would have gone right through and plunged to the river below.

They didn’t hit the side rails. But they did plunge into the ditch at the end of the bridge. The car rolled three times and when it came to rest neither of them knew which way was up. They were literally trapped in the car, unable to move, at all. For two hours. That’s how long it took someone to come across them on that country road and then for the ambulance to get there on the slick roads.

During those hours, they talked to each other. They said all the things they were afraid they might not get to say. They reminisced. They told each other how much they loved each other and how thankful they were that they’d finally found each other.

When the paramedics got there, Barb could hear them talking outside of the car and realized that the professionals assumed no one had survived the accident. She called out to them, assuring them that both she and her husband were very much alive.

Miraculously, Barb ended up with only a broken arm, shoulder blade and a few ribs. Larry was found to have a fractured vertebra in his neck. The amazing thing—if he hadn’t been pinned in the car, he would have moved and tried to get out and it could have caused a shift in the bone and caused him to be paralyzed or even killed him.

But they’ve recovered. It’s been less than a month and they’ll be home together for Christmas.

They’ve even kept their sense of humor about things. And we’ve caught them kissing in the hallway more than once!

Larry told us today that they lost that bracelet in the accident. The two thousand dollar reason for them being out that day in the first place is gone. Probably laying in that deep ditch on that back country road.

But Larry has the right perspective. The accident taught them what was really valuable. He said that he feels like that day they traded that bracelet for their lives because something had to get lost in the accident. And obviously he’s just fine with how it turned out.

Now isn’t that nice? Seemed appropriate for the holiday and for romance lovers!

Tell someone you love how much they mean to you today everyone!