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This could possibly make a good story for my web site, but I will decline at this point in time. Just to keep you guys informed I will repeat the email I wrote to my family (only slightly rewritten) followed by the one written by Melissa. It is this:
At about 1:45 PM today [Monday, April 30, 2001] Melissa called me at work, "First, I'm ok. I had an accident." Coming home from work she found herself in a single car roll-over accident. Don't ask if she was wearing her seat belt. She swore to me she was OK, but was hoping I wouldn't be angry with her for damaging the car. And could I come quick? She said the ambulance was on its way. Well, would she still be there when I got there in twenty minutes? She said she would, and she was. The car was just off the shoulder of the road on President's Street a couple of miles east of town, upside down, pointed into the drainage ditch. The driver's side door was open, the glass broken out, two Chatham County police cars straddled the scene with lights flashing and Melissa was standing next to them accompanied by a couple who had been behind her when it happened.
She was only going about 45 mph, which is the limit there I think. The road is newly paved so still has a slight oily surface to it. And the right side of her car just got off the edge of the pavement onto the slightly lower shoulder. I drove by it ours after and there is at one point a little deeper hole along the edge and I'll bet she hit that then struggled to get the car back on the road and just lost control of it. Swerving probably from side to side the car finally left the right side of the road slightly sideways pointing to the right, snapped off a road sign held aloft by two heavy metal legs, turned upside down rolling over on the driver's side door ending up on its roof and probably sliding the last 20 feet of its journey in that disposition. The guy driving the car behind her got out of his vehicle and pulled open the driver's side door so Melissa could crawl out. It is a miracle that she wasn't hurt more than just the few scratches and bruises she ended up with! A miracle indeed! A miracle also there were no cars next to her when it happened compounding the disaster. And she wasn't ticketed, though the officer admitted there are others in uniform that could have found any number of codes on the books with which to cite her. He graciously attributed it to "mechanical failure."
I got there about 10 minutes after two on this bright, slightly overcast, dry day, and everyone at the scene seemed to be in a good mood, even Melissa, except when I stopped and got out she kept apologizing to me for the expense that wrecking the car will entail. I assured her (and you) that I was much more concerned with how she is than how the car was. And indeed, she is OK. We did go to the medical facility near home but they only had one doctor there and they were swamped and couldn't see her. We'd have to go back into town to the Memorial Medical Center emergency and get checked out. Finally I let her talk me into just going home, after she kept expressing that sentiment. It had been about two hours since the incident by now and she swore was feeling OK, and had never lost consciousness in the roll over. If she started to feel badly for some reason we could go then. So we went home.
That is what our afternoon was like. We will go on from here and will be OK. The main thing is that she is all right. [And continues to be five days after.]
Melissa's story:
Well . . . having reached the seasoned age of (almost) 45, I have committed the single most stupid act of my life - wrecking and rolling my car. I guess this is what happens to people who simultaneously visualize new jewelry designs, contemplate plans on how to stave off the angry and disgruntled Savannah Chamber for another day (the Savannah Mag publishes their Visitor Guides, etc.- and we had a shipping problem), and, oh yeah, . . . drive. When the car wandered onto a right-hand dip in the brand new blacktop I was a goner. Experience from years of fish-tailing through icy Michigan by-ways didn't pay off today. The car seemed to glide back and forth across the oily, slippery surface as if in slow motion for about 1/8 mile, then hit a sign, and completed the whole maneuver with a roll. I laid some lovely, swerving tracks (another bracelet design?). Talk about a bad dream. Once everything stopped moving, I sat on the ground for a moment inside my overturned car and hoped a better reality would kick in. But I had to settle for quickly being helped out of the wrecked car, and I guess that isn't such a bad settlement. To tell you the truth, except for Divine intervention, I should have gone through the windshield instead of bouncing off it, crown first. It's funny the things that go through your mind when your car is out of control. I just thought "so this is how I die -- mystery solved". Wrong again.
Anyway, except for being sore everywhere, and a little afraid to go to sleep, I'm okay. The worst part of it is the feeling of embarrassment and stupidity. And I want my car back. Yeah, it's just a (fully loaded) 1998 Contour, but I love that car. It's just perfect for me. And it stood up rather well today according to several police officers. We'll see if the insurance company agrees.
Ahem. So now, sobered by this event, I am determined to become more . . . uh, . . . something befitting such personal cataclysm . . . Serious? Introspective? (Tess just came in and affectionately mooshed her purring little face into my forehead - her way of saying I don't have to change too much - just be more careful). Well, that's settled.
That's it for now. Thanks for all of your good wishes. Love to each and every one of you. signed - Stupid in Savannah, or the Steel Magnolia (take your pick, y'all).