When your time is up, it’s up. And when it’s NOT UP, it’s REALLY NOT UP. Sometimes there’s really no rhyme or reason to these things. We all know I had a horrible car accident about 9 years ago where my car rolled twice, the windshield shattered, the driver was driving under the influence of a substance and my car went down an embankment off a freeway into a ditch.    

     Clearly, my time was not up. My two best friends from childhood were driving on their way to a “Dave Matthew’s Band” Concert in 2001 when their VW Jetta collided with a Dodge Ram going 23 miles an hour. Elizabeth was immediately killed on impact and Laura’s injuries were so life threatening she was pronounced brain dead the next day and never woke up again. When it’s your time, it’s your time. But when it’s not, boy it CERTAINLY IS NOT. 

    My Sister Candice had the misfortune of learning this first hand just a little over a week ago when a woman who was high on an illegal substance struck her car on the freeway heading northbound and Candice’s accident was eerily reminiscent of mine. She rolled twice down an embankment and in her case, ended up upside down in a ditch, she had a windshield blown out, and had to crawl out of her car to save her own life. The difference between Candice and My accident was I was nearly mortally wounded, and by the grace of the good lord above, she was not!!! She has but two scrapes on her knees where she had to place them on the glass to climb down after unhooking her seatbelt. To call it a miracle feels cliché but there really is no other adequate word for it all. When it is NOT your time, it is NOT YOUR TIME. And it was NOT Candice’s time!! 

    I can’t say that this experience hasn’t been stressful and brought up a whole bunch of emotions and feelings that I thought I had been able to put to rest, but at the end of the day, my sister needs me. She needs my wisdom, my experience and my input on how to deal with these things as they come and go. She also is brave and strong enough to seek professional help which is something I waited FAR too long to do and would be the one thing I would change if I could. But together, we’ll be better and stronger than before. Because the reason it wasn’t your time then was because of all the fabulous living you still have left to do. And boy…that’s a whole lot of good stuff!!