Back when I was all of two or three years of age, my parents worked as Superintendents of a very small apartment complex.
It was winter time and one of my dad's jobs at the time was to paint over the numbers inside the parking garages since the current numbers were all faded and not very legible.
Being a kid and the fact that there was snow on the ground, I wanted to go with my dad so I could play out side. My mom didn't think it was such a good idea since she didn't believe my dad would be able to keep a very good watch on me. She told him that it would be difficult for him to keep an eye on me if his back was going to be turned to me while painting. But of course, being daddy's little girl, I got my way, and my dad assured my mom he would keep a good watch on me. Yet, mom's always know best don't they?
My dad and I headed outside and my dad told me how important it was that I stay right with him inside the garage while he painted. He promised that when he was done, he would take me outside and let me play in the snow.
My dad had only begun to paint, yet the freshly fallen snow in the driveway just outside the garages was much more appealing to me than standing in the boring garage watching my dad paint. So, I wandered into the driveway.
Within seconds my dad turned around and said, "What did I just tell you? Get back in here with me and stay out of the driveway. If a car came pulling into the driveway, you could get hit." He then told me that if I didn't listen, he was taking me back upstairs to wait inside with my mom until he was done.
I begrudgingly stepped back into the garage. But, as soon as my dad turned around to begin painting again, I watched to see if he'd notice and I slowly stepped backwards into the driveway again.
I was looking down at my boots, stepping on the snow and making patterns in the snow with my boots, when I heard the crunching of snow from behind me. I turned around just in time to see the front of a car. The car ran right into me, smacking me in the face with the bumper, and knocking me backwards onto the ground.
I was underneath the car, scared and crying. I was being dragged by the car, and all of a sudden, I heard a woman tell me it was okay and that I needed to calm down. I remember the woman asking me if I could hear her and I said yes. She told me again to calm down and told me that I needed to listen to her, that it was really important. I said, "Okay." I then tried to calm down. I remember at that point looking up at the car that was over top of me, and being rather amazed at all the intricacies up underneath the car.
I then heard that same lady speak to me in a very firm voice, not a yell, but I knew from her voice it was very important. She told me to begin to roll. She called my name and said, "Roll now!" I didn't hesitate for one second, I crossed my arms across my chest and I began rolling back and forth from one side to the other. I heard something rip. I knew that I must have been caught underneath the car. I tore free when I began to roll, however, I was being banged off the tires and didn't like it, it hurt. I was crying but I heard the woman say, "It's alright, you'll be okay just keep rolling." I continued to roll and the next thing I knew the car was no longer on top of me. I was laying on the ground and crying. My dad came running over to me and scooped me up in his arms.
With me in his arms, my dad ran and whipped open the door to the apartment building that was just steps from where I was laying. He then ran with me in his arms up the stairs, to the second floor where our apartment was. He barged through the door, layed me down on the kitchen table and ran to the phone to call for an ambulance.
I was crying and scared. My mom was panicked and immediately began undressing me to check for injuries. I remember feeling like my nose was running a lot and so I wiped it with the back of my hand. I looked down and saw a lot of blood all over the back of my hand and on the sleeve of my winter coat. My nose was bleeding very heavily, and I was scared at the site of the blood.
I remember very distinctly my mom standing to my left and trying to calm me down while my dad called the ambulance. I looked down towards my feet and saw my brother and our older cousin just standing there. They looked scared, I knew they were worried for me but the looks on their faces panicked me. And to my right, was who I had always believed to be, was my Nana, my dad's mom. I remember her telling me it was alright, and that everything would be okay. It calmed me down so much having her there. She was the only one that was remaining calm.
Apparently the ambulance was taking forever (back in those days they didn't come very quickly), and so my dad simply scooped me up and rushed me to the hospital in our car. I still remember that too.
Once at the hospital, the doctors and nurses immediately rushed me in to an examining room. I was then rushed to x-ray. I remember crying as they took a bunch of x-rays. I was scared of the big scary looking x-ray machine and I kept saying that I wanted my mom.
I remember being wheeled out of x-ray and there were a bunch of police officers in the hallway. They had been called to investigate what happened and to see whether the driver had been drinking or was at fault.
As I stated, all of my life I have remembered the accident, the memory of it has always remained very clear and vivid in my mind. And like I said, the memory is so fresh, it is as if it only happened a few short years ago, yet it has actually been 37 or 38 years since it happened.
One night when I was in my early 20s, my mom and brother and I were sitting around talking, and we got around to discussing the accident. My mom asked me if I still remembered the accident. I told her I remembered it as though it had just happened.
My mom didn't really believe me and assumed that I only remembered the accident because of what people had told me or from what I had heard.
So, I began telling my mom all that I remembered and in great detail. I described the memory of pressing my winter boots down into the snow to make patterns in the snow, and went on to describe my winter boots to my mom, in great detail. My mom couldn't believe I remembered.
She then asked me about my snowsuit, so I described that in detail as well. I also described the car in detail, including the colour, and what the front of it looked like. I also described what the driver looked like. My mom couldn't believe I actually remembered all of that. My mom was also surprised that I remembered all of the police at the hospital standing in the hallway outside of the x-ray room.
My mom then told me that I was banged up really badly. She said that you could see the imprints of the tire tread patterns all over my body. My face had been hit and I had a big gash across my nose and my nose had been bleeding, there was blood everywhere. I also had two horrific looking black eyes. Apparently I looked so bad that one of the police officers that was at the hospital that had a child about my age, broke down and cried when he saw me. Even the older police officers broke down and cried. I looked bad.
I brought up the fact that I remembered laying on the kitchen table and seeing her there looking all worried as well as my brother and cousin. I told her that the only one that stayed calm which helped me to calm down was my Nana. My mom then said, "Nana wasn't there. She was at work." I told my mom that was wrong because I remembered my grandma being there. My mom told me she wasn't. My grandmother was at work and had to be called when they got to the hospital to let her and my grandpa know what had happened. My grandparents rushed to the hospital after my grandma was called.
My mom then went on to tell me what a miracle it was. As terrible as I looked, I suffered no real injuries. I had no broken bones, not one. The only cut I sustained was across my nose. I did not need stitches either. The doctors at the hospital told my parents that they could not believe that I had no injuries at all. Especially given the fact that the tire tread marks were imprinted all over my body, yet somehow had not crushed me. They said that I was extremely lucky to have not sustained any head injuries or internal injuries.
I was kept in the hospital for a week, which I still have distinct memories of.
According to my mom, once I was out of the hospital and at home; her and my dad were talking one night about what a miracle it was that I was okay. I do not remember any of this conversation. But, according to my mom, after hearing my parents comment about what a mircale it was that I wasn't hurt and sustained no real injuries, I very matter-of-factly told them "Grandma Hopkin's was there, and she saved me."
My mom said that both her and my dad felt the hair on the back of their necks stand up. My grandma Hopkin's was my Nana's mom, my dad's grandma. She died when I was only an infant. My parents took me to meet her when I was only a few days old. She died shortly after.
I did not know what she looked like, and up until that point in my life, no one had ever told me about her or discussed her with me. So, my parents were surprised that I would even mention her name.
My mom said that her and my dad asked me how she saved me, and apparently I told them that she had told me to roll. I then told them, "if I had not rolled like she told me, I would have been crushed and I would have died".
My mom said that her and my dad were really creeped out to say the very least. But, they were also kind of comforted in knowing that someone was obviously watching over me.
It kind of all makes sense to me now. I have always remembered my Nana being there with me, yet my parents say she wasn't.
So, was the woman I remember seeing in the kitchen my grandma Hopkin's? My great-grandma? It's weird considering the fact it would have been easy for me to believe it was my Nana. My Nana looked exactly like her mom, my grandma Hopkin's.
Was it the voice of my great-grandma that had told me to roll? I have no idea. But I remember very vividly, hearing a woman's voice talking to me and telling me to pay attention to her and roll. Yet my dad said he was the only one there at the time of the accident. And as for the driver, it was a male, and he was inside the vehicle, obviously. He didn't get out of his vehicle until after he had already driven over me. It turned out that he hadn't seen me.
To this day, I very much believe, as do my parents and my brother, that my great-grandma was watching over me that day. Is she my guardian angel? I have no idea. But I think about it often, and every single time I go to her grave to place flowers there, I always thank her for keeping me safe that day.
After the accident, the only visible injury I still had was the slight cuts on either side of my nose, and bruising on my bottom lip.
Copyright © 2013 A Haunted Life
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