Road Trip

Keeping my fingers crossed... I should be travelling to Dallas with Cathie to pick up Eve by Friday. At least, I hope so. I think I'm in the mood for a little break, and some time with Cathie. I haven't told much about my children, so bear with me while I take a quick tour down Memory Lane. It'll be necessary, in order to relate this piece of history to my life now.

Cathie is my youngest offspring. She has been a trip, herself! Youngest of three children, too young to remember her parent's divorce. She found out very early how powerful a winsome smile and twinkling eyes were, then tried very hard to keep people from figuring out how smart she really was. Admittedly, Eve was a tough act to follow -- she's one of the smartest people I know. So Cathie chose a different path. She's been a real challenge, but like her brother and sister, she has always known she has my heart at all times.

So now Cathie is a sergeant in the US army, a medic, but not yet a doctor or a nurse. She enlisted during her senior year of high school, intent on becoming a doctor, and wanting to join the army. Although her stepmother was against it and hoped I would put a stop to it (her dad mysteriously stepped back and let the women sort things out -- smarter than I thought!), I gave Cathie my support. I had seen her pursue whims and have brief infatuations with ideas before, but this wasn't one of them.

Cathie left for basic training before her eighteenth birthday. She's 25, now. Cathie has been stationed in Germany, Kosovo, and South Korea. She is not in an infantry division, but she's a sharpshooter. She can administer an IV or deliver a baby. She can drive or work on the engine of a Hummer. And she saved someone's life in a tragic situation, although she has never been in battle.

In February of 2003, Cathie was stationed at Fort Campbell, the army base nearest to our home. Her brother was in Fort Hood, Texas, awaiting his tour of duty in South Korea. As is common for deploying military, he was selling, giving away, or storing several belongings, amongst which as a very nice sofa. Cathie decided to drive down and get it, using the trip as an excuse to see him before he left. Her friend Tina offered to accompany her. Cathie didn't tell me, she she knew I couldn't go, and since she didn't plan to be gone long.

In the early hours of Saturday, February 1, Cathie was following an 18-wheel tractor-trailer truck on a highway in Texas, not far from Texarkana. Only an hour or so before the descent and crash of the space shuttle Columbia, there was another tragic crash and loss of life. The truck ran into a bridge over a creek. It veered and then stopped, hanging part-way off the edge of the bridge. Its load, a 5-ton industrial lathe, flew off the truck and struck Cathie's Dodge pick-up truck.

The driver of the large truck was dead, wedged behind the steering wheel, dangling above the creekbed. Cathie remembers hearing the screams of his passenger, a woman who was thrown when the truck went off the road. The woman was taken to the Texarkana hospital, where she laspsed into a coma. She never awoke.

Cathie had tried to respond to the screams, but she couldn't move her leg. Instead, she tended to her friend Tina, who had turned very white and seemed to pass out. Tina had suffered from a mini-stroke and stopped breathing. Cathie kept breathing for her, keeping her alive, while two men in another pick-up truck found them and contacted help.

I can only imagine how Cathie felt, waiting in the hospital for news about Tina. I know the television sets and people were certainly abuzz with the news of the space shuttle. Cathie said she knew Tina's chances didn't look good. When she called me from the hospital, her voice was shaking.

It's been two years and ten months. Cathie found out her ankle was broken, but not till she got back to Fort Campbell and was still in excruciating pain.
Tina had extensive surgery and then surprized everyone by waking up able to speak. She had suffered some brain damage that affected her eyesight and several other functions. She could not read, or name attributes like colors, at that time. I am not sure how she is doing with those abilities now. In addtion to requiring heart surgery, Tina had to have a tear in her liver repaired from the airbag inflation. She is still raising her two little boys, but she will need help and medical attention for the rest of her life.

In 2003, Cathie said that she never wanted to drive again. I understood, but I knew she would. It would be something she'd have to do in order to heal.
She now drives another Dodge pick-up truck. She has driven on that same road again more than once. For the most part, she seems to have faced her demons from that day. Her retelling of the event usually makes her feel stronger, whereas it makes me feel a little shaky.

This trip to pick up Eve in Dallas and come home for Christmas is going to be a pleasant trip, though, where we can talk at our leisure, play CDs on her stereo, and sing Christmas songs. (Yes, we do silly things like that on road trips.)

Maybe soon I can face my demons again, too, and revisit the place where I lost my sister Cathy. I hope to do them both proud.

Lorilei