Priscilla

Dear Family

Greetings from Snowflake, AZ. We enjoyed our three weeks with Sarah here from Massachusetts . She left us her former computer that really helps relieve our high demand. We enjoyed going up to Salt Lake for the New Year. Isaiah and Bryan love their Aunt Emily taking care of them. Thank You Emily. Riley has taken up residency with us as of January 9th. We hope that it can be a permanent arrangement.

We had an auto accident in our family involving Krista last month. I received a call from Jim about 8 a. m. when I was at work and school was just beginning. He said Tavi’s mom had come to the house to tell him that they (Krista and Tavi) had been in an accident and were air-vac’d to Flag. Jim called the hospital in Flagstaff for more information and called me back. Krista was okay, just being checked (cat scan) to make sure. Tavi was with her. He was not in the accident, he just got to go on the helicopter ride. I called her about 9 a. m. and talked to her directly. She was obviously on pain medication, but talking to her, I knew she was going to be okay. That was my point of view.

Now the rest of the story: Krista got off work at 6 a. m. and was driving the 30 minute commute south on hwy 77. She said she had both hands on the wheel and had Tavi on speaker phone as he was up getting ready to go to work. She saw headlights turn into her lane and had to make a quick decision to either pull off the road on the right or to take the opposite lane to avoid a collision. She chose to stay on the pavement and take the opposite lane, but at 65mph their passenger front corners hit. Krista was driving a VW bug. The other vehicle a mini-van. Tavi heard her scream on the phone and then say, “I can’t breath, I can’t breath!” as the air bag had knocked her breath away. Tavi threw his shoes on, and as he headed out the door, accidently let his phone close. His dad’s truck was warming up to go to work. He said, “Dad, we got go now! Krista’s been in a wreck.” So they jumped in the truck without telling Tavi’s mother. Tavi tried to get Krista back on the phone, but she wouldn’t pick up. His mother called him to say, “Tavi, your father just left without eating his breakfast or taking his lunch. Tell him to come back and get it.” Tavi just told his mother, “Okay, I’ll tell him.” Because he didn’t know yet what had happened to Krista, he didn’t know what to tell his mother.

In the meantime, on this lonely stretch of road, on the high cold desert, Krista said after the awful crashing sound it was deathly quiet. She attempted to open her car door and then felt very weak as it just closed again. The first person to stop was one of Krista’s co-workers. She says she remembers hearing him on the phone with 9-1-1 saying, “she just gained consciousness.” She said she was wondering how he got in her car because she always keeps her doors locked. Another person stopped and held her head still in case of neck injuries. The third person had a flashlight and covered Krista in a blanket and talked to her calmly until the ambulance arrived…a good 20 minutes or more. Krista said he was a silver-haired angel. Then Tavi arrived. Debris was spread 200ft along the highway. Half of her VW bug was sheared off. Highway patrolmen told her she was lucky and made the best decision under those “who-knows? “ circumstances. It is believed the other driver, “an elderly gentleman” had fallen asleep at the wheel. He was apparently up and walking around at the scene of the accident, though his car was totaled also. It was good that neither driver had a passenger.

Tavi enjoyed his 45 minute helicopter ride. He said it was pretty tight quarters. Jim picked them both up from the hospital later that day after everything checked out okay. Krista was very sore with bruises and a few cuts and limped for a few days, but after 10 days went skiing, so you know she is better. On the way back from Flagstaff, they stopped at the wrecking yard in Holbrook to clean out the car and found this blanket that was left to cover her and it had a label, “To Bishop Brimhall, love, your 10th ward Young Women.” Well we are in the 10th ward and Keith Brimhall is our Bishop. Also while at the wrecking yard, Tavi pulled the metal VW off the vehicle and had it made into a belt buckle with the date of the accident [12-17-09] engraved on it. He must have really enjoyed that helicopter ride.

I sure enjoy my family. James and Hyrum surprised me and joined Bryan and the other scouts on the Klondike (district winter camp) this weekend. Hyrum said he just needed this one more campout to complete his camping merit badge and James just went for fun. Bryan is the Deacons quorum president and patrol leader of about 8 boys. Every Sunday I sit at the organ watching three of my sons prepare, bless and pass the sacrament. Kind of odd from years ago when I sat in the congregation with little boys and Jim sat on the stand. Now he is down there with Isaiah and Riley and I’m up at the organ.

I was a judge at the spelling bee at the school where I work. James came over with his media technology class to stream it on to the internet where the classrooms could pick it up on their smart boards. Amazing stuff.

Love, Priscilla