3 Horses...

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My mother almost died on Friday night.

It was a sobering event.

Our family went up Ogden Canyon to go camping this last Friday night, for the weekend. My beloved and I were going to go but ended up not joining them as we were caught in a bad rainstorm and by the time it stopped, it was getting too late and too dark to go and to find our way up the mountain, so we stayed home.

My mother had to work Saturday morning, so she was just going to go up for a campfire dinner and some company and then come back down to her home to sleep so she could go in to work.

After going to bed, and sleeping for a time, we received a phone call. It was about 1:30 a.m. It was my mother telling me that she had been in an accident and that she was in the Emergency Room and could we come and get her. "Of course" I said, "What happened?" and she said "I hit three horses."....I paused...thinking that perhaps in the accident she had become disoriented and she really meant, 3 deer or 3 elk...but 3 horses?...so I said "3 Horses??" and she laughed a little and said "Yes. I will tell you about it when you get here." I spoke with the nurse who told me that she was doing just fine and that there was no need to panic or to rush.

We got up, got dressed and headed to the hospital.

Upon arrival, we found her in her room, on a hospital bed, hooked up to monitors and in a neck brace. I didn't see any broken skin or head wounds, which I was happy about, but she looked dazed and shocky. There were no casts or transfusions. They were waiting for the x-rays of her back and neck to come back to confirm that there were no fractures.

I asked her what happened and she told us that she had been driving down the canyon without incident. Not going very fast, watching for deer. It was about 11:30 p.m. or so when she suddenly saw 3 horses galloping straight towards her and then into her car. She said it was like time stood still and she realized several things at once...she saw them and how beautiful they were...their manes blowing out behind them...realizing in that same moment that "this was going to be a hit"...she braced herself as all at once they converged on her car...coming across the front end, across the hood and into the windshield, crushing it and up on to the roof of the car. She said she felt the sun visor touch her forehead and then it was over.

Fortunately for her, there were two ambulances coming down the canyon behind her. One a regular paramedic and the other a fire truck paramedic. Both stopping to give aide. The park rangers came and a Sheriff showed up. The horses were milling about the site of the accident...two of them, and the third had wandered off. A neighbor man came out to see what all of the noise was about and asked what happened. One of the paramedics, who had seen the accident happen, told him that there were three horses that had run straight into my mother's car. The old man said that those horses were always getting out of the paddock and running around.

Then they took her down the canyon and to the hospital and after a couple of hours she called us and there we were.

For my part, I couldn't believe that she had survived the accident. One horse will kill you, or cripple you or leave you in a coma, let alone what three could do. Coming through the windshield and crushing the roof...I didn't understand how she wasn't cut up or left with broken bones...but aside from being a bit bruised, sore and battered...she was just fine.

It was not my mother's time to go...and I am grateful to God for watching over her and keeping her free from harm...I am grateful that she is still here with us and that we have not been left behind as orphans. It was a sobering event...but one that has left me full of joy and gratitude...and this is a good thing.