Journal--My First Car

The first car that I ever drove wasn't technically my car.  But it was still my car.  Does that make sense?

My Dad started hunting for a car that we could use once we hit driving age.  It was always strictly meant to be a family car for all of us kids to use during our high school days and to pass on from one kid to another.

When he initially started hunting for a car, he just wanted to get something that he wanted.  He kept getting really excited about these luxury cars that I would describe as "granny" cars.  Too old for a high school student to feel cool about driving.  We told him so.  In what was perhaps retaliation or perhaps compliance or surrender, without any of our knowledge (even my Mom's), my Dad went out and bought a car.  And then one day, there was simply a black 1993 Ford Escort sitting in our garage.

I don't know that it would have been anyone's first choice.  But do you know what?  That was one fun little car.  It was a stick shift.  So, we all learned to drive on a stick shift.  I honestly haven't driven one since that car (mostly because I feel that I need to own an automatic so that I don't drive like a race car driver!  It's sooooo fun to drive stick!).

I drove it all throughout high school.  I carpooled with my frenemy, Shauna Paulson during my junior year.  For my senior year, I carpooled with my brother, Clayton, and his friend and our neighbor, Joel Todd.

When I went off to BYU my freshman year, the car passed on to Clayton.  Then, and I'm not exactly sure what everyone else was driving, the car came back into my possession for my final years of college while Clayton was on his mission.  I believe my brother, Nephi, bought himself a truck and my Dad bought my sister a crap car, which she named "Prudence" which she drove.  When my brother, Clayton, returned home from his mission, he got his own car.  When I graduated from BYU, I bought my very first car of my own and the little black Ford Escort (which I had named "Baby") went back to high school to be driven by my brother, Sean.  And I'm pretty sure Sean didn't call that car "Baby."

My very first car that I bought all by myself was a 2001 white Toyota Corolla.  I bought it for $10,000 some odd dollars (after tax and licensing).  I put $5,000 down on it and still had to have my Dad co-sign on it because even though I had paid my way through college (with some much appreciated help from my parents) and graduated debt-free, apparently that wasn't good enough because I didn't have any credit because I had never taken out any student loans or had any credit cards.  Credit is so dumb.

I owned that car for a little over a year.  I paid it off less than a year after buying it (in October--I paid it off at the age of 24).

My new little baby car was totaled.  I got together with my good friend, Krissy Kidwell Smith, for a get-together.  I picked her up at Wymount (she was living in the married student housing at BYU with her husband, Kevin).  Krissy was pregnant at the time with her first child.  She was about 7 months along.  They had tried a long time for this baby.  They had been married for nearly 4 years. We were barely leaving Wymount and were driving through a green light (heading west) when a woman heading south ran a red light and side-swiped my car.  I remember looking over and having just enough time to see that car coming straight at us.  That memory still sometimes comes back to me while I'm driving.  The force of the impact threw my car into a car in the left-lane opposite me (the lane facing east...and turning north).  From what I know, it totaled all three cars.

I remember feeling a searing pain in my arm and my arm went dead.  It took a few minutes before I could use it.  The woman who hit me tapped on my window and asked if I was okay.  I still regret my initial reaction.  I said "No, I'm not okay!  You totaled my car!"  Then I looked over at Krissy.  I paid no more attention to the woman who hit me.  Krissy was holding her head and she was drooling.  When we left her apartment, she had been wearing a ponytail.  The force of the impact knocked the elastic band right out of her hair.  I tried to get Krissy to respond to me.  But she couldn't say anything.  A witness to the accident called the cops and told me he had done so.  I immediately called Kevin to let him know what had happened and where we were.  He came quickly.

They had to pry the door off of my car to get Krissy out.  They immediately put her in an ambulance with Kevin at her side and drove her away.  I sat there, dumbfounded.

I called my sister, Laurie, who came to pick me up.

The paramedics checked me for injuries.  My arm was hurt...but nothing serious.  I had a nasty foot-long bruise on my left arm for weeks afterward.  I remember them checking me to see if I was alright.  The paramedic asked me to tell him if anything hurt or not.  I shook my head no and he sassed me for shaking my head.  He informed me, very unfeelingly, that I needed to SAY if I was alright and not shake my head in case I had any head of neck injuries.  What a jerk.  He then went on to tell me that I had great abs and asked me if I worked out.  Are you kidding me?  My best friend was unconscious and being taken to the hospital in an ambulance and you're asking me if I work out?  Let me repeat: what a jerk!

A tow truck took my car away and my sister showed up.  She took me to her apartment.  I was so shaken up.

Kevin called me to say that he had given Krissy a blessing and in it, he blessed her to completely heal from this accident and that their baby would be alright.  I was so grateful for that comfort and that Kevin was so thoughtful to take the time to let me know.

At the same time, the doctors were saying that Krissy might have sustained irreversible brain injuries and that she might be brain damaged for the rest of her life.  They were saying all sorts of things.

But through it all, I held to Kevin's blessing that Krissy would heal completely.

Krissy was in a coma for nearly a week.  She remained in the hospital for about 7 weeks, if I remember correctly.  She was only home for a week or two before she went into labor with her first baby.  They had to perform a C-section in order to avoid a brain aneurysm that might have been brought about by her pushing during labor.  Krissy had to have physical therapy for months.

But do you know what?  Krissy DID heal completely.  She doesn't have brain damage.  She is completely healthy.  She healed faster than her doctors thought possible.  Her baby was completely healthy too.

Did that mean that Krissy came out of that experience without any challenges?  No.

But I gained a very strong testimony through this experience.  I learned that man is timid.  Man is afraid to make promises because man doesn't have all the answers.  Those doctors were saying all sorts of things.  Covering their bases to avoid liability.  But through the priesthood and the Holy Ghost, Kevin wasn't timid.  The Holy Ghost is bold.  The Holy Ghost is not afraid to make promises.  The Holy Ghost does have the answers.  Through Kevin's priesthood blessing, the Holy Ghost said one thing: Krissy would heal completely and Allie would be fine and healthy.  And everything happened according to Kevin's blessing.

I am so grateful for that experience.  Even though it was scary and difficult.  I learned so much from it.

And that lead me to my next car.  A car that has given me (knock on wood) a very uneventful experience of ownership!  My little 2003 white Toyota Corolla which we still currently own.  Jeremiah is driving that car right now while I tote my boys around in our 2011 silver Toyota Sienna minivan!

And again, this post ended up a lot longer than I meant it too.  I guess there are a lot of stories to simple questions!

But I'm not making any apologies.  This is my journal.  If you want to read it, you're welcome to.  If not...skip it!