A Small Town

How To Save a Life
By The Fray
BestAudioCodes.com

On Sunday January 21 our small community was faced with a horrifying event. In a town where nearly everyone knows nearly everyone else, when a tragedy occurs it seems all are affected.

After church on that Sunday, Jeff and I did our Wal-Mart run for the week and casually noticed paramedics over by the Tuscarawas River. We didn’t really say anything but we did notice. Quite often classes and tests are held in our area for on site learning.

Later in the afternoon I received a phone call with the opening, “Did you hear what happened?” Whenever I hear that question coming from her I always catch my breath and prepare to hear something that I don’t want to hear. She continued to tell me that a car had broken through the guardrail and sailed into the river.


People from a nearby business formed a chain grabbing each others hands going deeper and deeper into the river. They were just 2 people short from reaching the car. Oh how I wish we would have helped. Someone threw a fire extinguisher in hopes of busting a window out. They missed. They saw the terrified faces, they heard the pounding on the windows and the screaming in the back seat as the car sunk further and further into the frigid murky water.


Boats were launched, divers were in the water, emergency people waited on shore and people watched and prayed. The efforts continued on for nearly 6 hours with no results. When I heard that the “rescue” efforts had been halted and would start again in the light of the next morning as a “recover” effort, my heart and my mind collapsed. I screamed to myself ...Where is the faith? … ..Where is the miracle? At that point we didn’t even know the people that were involved ...we didn’t know the ages. We had nothing to go on except a myriad of rumors.

Immediately my thoughts went to my kids. I wanted to make sure that they were all fine regardless of where they were. I called Nathan and Sara...told them I loved them. My thoughts clung nearest to Luke. When the initial “stories” started it was believed that 3 young girls were in the car. I was concerned with how Luke would handle yet another unnecessary death of someone he knew. We’ve had far too many murders and suicides in our little community in the last few years that seemingly no one has been left untouched.

When daytime emerged, the Army Corps of Engineers closed several dams in attempts for the water level to go down so the recovery mission would be successful. The water level had dropped about 4-5 feet. Within an hour of beginning the search the car was found a mere 12 feet from the embankment. Inside the vehicle in the backseat were the bodies of a 16 year old girl and her 89 year old grandmother.

So in our little community we now have a woman who lost her mother AND her daughter in the same day. My heart goes out to her. I pray this doesn’t turn her into an angry person. I pray that she continues her medical practice. I pray that she knows everything happens for a reason. I pray that she feels God’s arms wrapping around her in the absence of her daughter’s and her mom’s arms. I pray that’s enough for her to go on.

Then I experience rage. I scream inwardly wondering HOW? How can this road continue to be open with this hazard? With this inept, poorly constructed guardrail... and all that’s going to be done is a CHECK? Isn’t it obvious that it wasn’t good enough? In the last dozen or so years the body count at this location is FIVE! How many more? How many more? I scoff at the intelligence of those in decision making capacity in our town.

I don’t understand it all but what I do “get” is this: THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED! I don’t understand legalities, I don’t understand protocol but what I do understand is this: THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED!


Hugs, Happiness and Harmony,

Julie