The Beginning of the Beginning

I was 16, it was a cold New Mexico night in December 1997. Eric and I were taking a friend's truck out for a spin. The bed of the truck had Christmas lights, making for a festive mood. Eric and I were not yet Eric and I. We were just really good friends.

I drove the truck and we were smiling, laughing and listening to music. I turned a corner and began to slide out of control on the ice. Quickly my mind flashed to driver's ed. I had completed it just a year earlier. I remembered that when you are sliding out of control you are not supposed to break, rather you are to gently press the gas and even out the vehicle. Well, tell that to a teen girl experiencing the panic induced waves of adrenaline. My gentle tap on the gas was apparently just putting the pedal to the metal. I guided the truck right into a big tree.

My face slammed into the steering wheel. I bit through my lower lip. Eric's head slammed into the rear view mirror. It was over in a heartbeat. We were silent for just a moment. Shocked. Suddenly I feared that the car would explode...not sure why because the wreck wasn't that bad. I turned off the still lit Christmas lights on the bed of the truck. We exited the vehicle and decided to walk to a nearby friends house in order to call the police, this was before cell phones were widely used.

As we walked Eric leaned forward so he wouldn't bleed onto his clothes. I used my finger to wipe up a bit of blood I could feel trickling down my chin, my finger went through the spot where I had bitten through my lip. I began to panic. Eric calmly suggested that I just put a lip ring into it. What a guy!

We arrived at our friend's house, opened the door and I said,"We are in serious need of medical attention." Our friend laughed at us. She thought that we were joking because we were so calm. Quickly she realized that was not the case at all. We called our parents to let them know we were fine and then called the police. Our friend's father drove us back to the accident. The police were already there, they had a flashlight and were following the trail of blood! They thought it was a hit and run. When we got back, we explained the story and went to the hospital.

They kept us in separate rooms in the hospital and it was more than we could handle. We were both so worried about the other. My Mom kept shuttling back and forth between us, assuring each that the other was OK. When it was all said and done, our wounds were really superficial. We were released that night.

The following morning I had to leave town for a small (really it was quite small) heart procedure that had nothing to do with the accident. My family was leaving very early in the morning. Eric called and wanted to stop in to see how I was doing before I left town. Worried that I looked ugly with my purple eye which had swollen shut, my swollen nose and the hole in my lip I hurried to put on make-up! Always look your best right? The photo above is the result of my effort to look nice for Eric that morning. I am not showing you a picture of Eric's wound, because the photo is a bit gory. We checked in quickly with each other and then I was off.

When I returned home a couple of days later Eric was there with flowers. He visited me every day. Before December was over we both knew that someday we'd be married.