Wrecking Our New Car

We bought our first new car just before we moved to Albany.  It was a 1963 Rambler. Shortly before we arrived Russell Gleaves had resigned as the preacher for the Schenectady church.   Since we had three preachers at Albany, the Schenectady elders asked if I would come and fill their pulpit on occasion.  One Sunday in November, I drove to Schenectady by myself to preach.  Ann and Elliott rode with Perry, Lillian and Elliott to the church in Albany because Ann was teaching a Bible class.   I had been invited to go home with one of the Schenectady elders.  Ann, Elliott and the Newtons were supposed to meet us there after the church service was dismissed in Albany.

I followed the elder’s car.   We passed through a traffic light and made a left hand turn.   I had gone less than a block when I felt a hard jolt from behind.   My car careened out of control.  I remember seeing a utility pole staring me in the face.   The next thing I remembered, my car was headed in the opposite direction, and it was a tangled mess.  I still have no memory of the actual impact. A drunken driver had run the light and rear-ended me.

I wasn’t bleeding anywhere, and I was still alive.  I was able to climb out of the car, and walk away.   When I bought the car, public service announcements on television were advocating the use of seat belts.   Vehicles were not required to have them, but I was convinced I needed them and ordered them with the car.   I immediately realized the seat belt had probably saved my life.   Ann and Elliott didn’t wear seat belts and so I considered the fact that they weren’t in the car to be a gift from God.   Before I left the scene of the accident Ann showed up, and when she saw the car, her heart sunk. They had told her that I was not injured, but after seeing the car she wasn’t buying it.  Actually I wasn’t seriously hurt, but by mid-afternoon I began to feel all kinds of aches and pains.  They were mostly bumps and bruises.  After that I consider every day I live as a blessing from God. It was also a blessing from God that Ann and Elliott weren’t in the car.  They hadn’t been using the seat belt.   They have used them ever since.