Personal Narrative

Tragic Accident
It is amazing how many things we take for granted. We make plans for the day, and don't think twice about how those plans can be taken away in the blink of an eye. I never thought much about it myself, until I was faced with the shock, and undeniable truth of my cousin’s death. I don't think anyone really thinks about tragedy until they are actually faced with shocking news.
I woke up on what I thought was going to be a wonderful Thursday off from work. I had the coffee brewing the windows open and all I heard was the sound of the birds singing and my two boys playing together in the bedroom. I had our day planned out I was going to do laundry, straighten the house back up, and then after we got dressed and around I was going to take the boys into town to play at the park and go grab some lunch. All that changed when I got the worst phone call that I would never want anyone to receive.
It was about 11:00 a.m. on Thursday June 26,2014 I had laundry going in the washer and as my son was hollering for me and running towards me with my phone in his hand. It was my mom calling I thought she was just calling to just check on her grandbabies as it seems she calls to check on them what seems like twenty times a day. When I answered and she was very upset I ask her what was going on as the thoughts running through my mind was something has happened to my grandma or she had something going on with her that she needed to tell me. Finally, after asking her over and over what was wrong she said I needed to get to the hospital right away because my cousin Olivia had been in a horrible car accident and they didn’t think she was going to make it. After she told me that my heart sank I didn’t know what to say I felt so nauseous all I could do was just stand there in awe asking myself is this true or I dreaming. After getting myself together I called the babysitter and had her come over to watch the boys so I could race up to the hospital. As I got to the hospital I ran in through the emergency room looking for my family. Once I found them all I could do was still try to come to the realization that this was true.
I come from a big family with many loving aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. As I was standing there I thought back to the time when I got to spend a week with Olivia. Almost a year ago to the date, most of the family was together for a family reunion. All the cousins sat at the same table and we had such a good time together. Olivia was nine years younger than I and we had never really spent much time together, but we really connected last summer. She was a busy person, she was going to be a senior, she was involved with the track team and won many medals, and she also worked two part time jobs. I was so honored that I had the chance of getting to know her and now, I would never get the chance to tell her how I felt and how much she helped me. My chance was gone and she is gone.
The morning of the accident Olivia was driving alone on a country highway when she went off the road hit a mailbox over corrected and flipped the SUV she was driving and was ejected out of the vehicle. I do believe that she had an angel with her that day that was driving the opposite was of her that seen her accident happen. He ran over to her called 911 and immediately starting doing CPR. He got her heart beating enough for her to be able to be on life support and allow us a little more time with her. When we were finally able to go back into the CCU and see her I wasn’t for sure at first if I wanted to go back there as I had no idea what she was going to look like and I didn’t want to have that kind of memory of her, but I knew that I needed to not only for me but for my aunt. As I was walking down hallway I could instantly hear my aunt crying and screaming “no no no please don’t take my baby from me, I’m not ready to let her go” the tears instantly started rolling down my face like rain falling on the windshield on a dark rainy day. When I entered that room it didn’t even look like her laying in that bed there was so many machines and tubes hooked up to her and she was so swollen you couldn’t even hardly tell it was her. All I could do was just sit at her bedside and hold her hand and talk to her and tell her how much I loved and I didn’t want to let her hand go as I was just hoping she would move or squeeze my finger. As the day was drawing to an end I didn’t want to leave but I knew that I needed to get home to my boys. The following morning I was up early and back up at the hospital when I arrived my aunt had told me that they were going to run one more test to check for brain frequencies and that if there weren’t any she would have to do the hardest thing no parent should ever have to do and that is tell them it is ok to take Olivia off of life support.
As we were walking down the long hallways that seemed like miles and miles long we entered the waiting room and couldn’t believe our eyes, the waiting room was so full of students from her high school it looked like the whole student body was there to support her. I was speechless I just looked around at all of them and my family and we knew then that she was so loved and had so many friends and impact on everyone. She never met a stranger. While sitting around and chatting with family Olivia’s dad comes in and by the look on his face we knew it wasn’t good and he gave us the news that we didn’t want to hear, “I’m so sorry to say this but Olivia is no longer with us, she had is completely brain dead and we have to make the choice to take her off of life support.” At that moment all you could hear was crying and sobbing my heart broke into a million pieces. I wondered slowly back down to her room and they were unhooking all the machines and tubes. All I could do was just go up by her head and whisper in her ear and tell her how much I loved her, how special she was to me and how much of an impact she had on every single per she met.
Olivia or “Liv” as we called her defined love and compassion beyond her years, always looking for the good in people and creating a positive influence for her peers. She was a good listener, problem solver, and faithful friend. Olivia never met a stranger, was in love with life, and her kindness radiated through her beautiful smile and selfless actions by always thinking of others. Olivia's compassion and willingness to serve others continued even in her passing through her prior decision to give life through the Organ Donation Program. Her selfless decision to be an organ donor allowed her to save the life of a near death ten year old boy by giving her loving heart to him. While we know she has already saved the lives of five people, we will never know the number of people impacted through her donation. She encouraged others to participate in the Organ Donation Program.
Your life can change drastically at any moment. Don't take life or the people that you love for granted, you're only here once. Loosing Liv this summer taught me that living every day intentionally and purposefully is what I intend to strive for. I am sorry that I had to lose her to realize that.