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The naming of
'Miracle Hill'.
Otherwise entitled:
Our near death (maybe death)
experience in April of 1991.
by Michael Seewald
Written in Sept. of 2003
After celebrating friend and artist Michael Gaszynski's 80'th something
birthday party at the San Dieguito Art Guild here in northern San Diego
county we started to make our way
over to friends Arnold and Lonnie Gibb's house in Village Park. Valerie
had plans to make everyone some of her famous egg plant parmesan.
But on this Sunday, different
plans were being arranged for us and others.
It's been over 10 years, but I remember it
as if it were yesterday.
This is our story.
For years I had thought the bottom of the hill at the
end of Encinitas Blvd., at the El Camino Real intersection here in
Encinitas, was one of those places that
was just waiting for an accident to happen. It is a very, very long steep
downhill grade. Many cars, being that it's a wide five lane highway
counting the large middle turn lane down most of it, (six lanes at the
light counting the two left turn lanes) feel comfortable
going down it at speeds of about 50 m.p.h.. I think it's
marked 35.
We arrived at that intersection at about 3 p.m. on a
beautiful sunny day. I pulled into one of the two left turn lanes, as I had
done hundreds of times over the years, but this time in the far right one,
next to the traffic that sometimes speeds by. (I'm cognizant of the
fact that is the dangerous side of the two, I usually don't get into that
one.)
Valerie was with me and we pulled up behind two or three other cars. We
were waiting to turn left onto El Camino Real. A moment later a
Volvo driven by a young man pulled up behind us to wait also; I had
not noticed this. (I later found out he had to drop off a video around the
corner, a one block drive from his home. He did not have his seat belts
fastened; after all, it's only one block). That would be the last 'normal'
moment for quite a few of us that were waiting that day. Destiny,
unknown to us, was in motion just behind us.
"That was almost the last thing I
ever saw. "
Now here is the interesting part. It had been a week to the day that Valerie had given
her life to the Lord at a
North Coast Calvary Chapel's alter call. Now that she was a committed
Christian, I was asking a sign from the Lord if I should marry her; if it
was OK. We had been dating for a while now, but as I had become a
Christian a couple of years earlier I had learned to pray for God's will,
forgoing my own. (He says in the bible not to get 'un-equally yoked', usually
interpreted to mean not to marry or start a business with someone without
your belief system- sounds like good/wise advice doesn't it?) So I had not really been able to contemplate
marrying her until she had become a Christian.
While sitting there at that light, contemplating life
and future possibilities, I saw two young ladies chatting to each other
and crossing the street towards us on our right, just reaching the curb
near us.
That was almost the last thing I ever saw... for at that same
moment I turned and noticed them
crossing the street I went into a 'what's happening here' situation.
For at that moment, and a very long moment it was, some sort of
'altered state of mind' engaged!! And as it was coming to what
I thought was an end then
it felt that the 'it' started all over again. Another, almost
eternal 'moment' was born, and once again all I contemplated was 'what's
is it, what's
happening'? It was kinda like I forced into a slow-motion dance in the
dark! Can not exactly explain the feeling.
She wasn't moving at
all...eyes and mouth wide open... Valerie reminded me of a dead
fish.
When all settled down (somewhere between eternity and
five seconds later) I started to realize what had happened. The car,
I then realized, had been spinning or moving, but at such a speed that I
could see nothing. My brains had
been pin-balled around at a tremendous speed. We had been in some
sort of an accident or explosion. As I did not hear any warning
noises, such as a cars breaks squealing, I at first thought that maybe a
plane had just landed on us!? I focused. My eyes were found to be
looking to my left and outside my drivers side window. I had
last seen young ladies walking, now I saw old ladies dying. Touching my car, and
facing the opposite direction, was a station wagon filled with older folks
that I
was now focusing on.
None of them were moving. The driver, an old lady of about 80 was
close enough to touch if both of our windows were down. She was
not looking well at all; her head was drooped forward in an
unconscious state, and blood was dripping out of her face down into her lap. The other occupants in her car looked no
better. I tried to move my arms to maybe start trying to help them
when I realized I could not. My legs and arms were paralyzed. I
could move nothing from my neck down. I slowly turned my head to the other
direction. There was Valerie. Oh yeah, she was with me. Her head was tilted way back and
almost touching my right shoulder, as if she were trying to look up at me.
She had ended up facing the same as me, to the left. She wasn't moving at all, and her
eyes and mouth were wide open... she was not focused on anything at all,
she looked like a dead fish. She
not only looked dead, I felt she probably was. I felt very, very sick,
not so much physically, but emotionally-
this was a real nightmare.
I turned back to my left and looked a bit over my
shoulder to see what else was up and saw, just in front of the
station wagon, an older looking car with a rounded top that was on fire (I
found out later it was a Volvo). I saw someone pulling
a man,
unconscious, from that burning vehicle and dragging him to safety. I
quickly realized that the vehicle, as it was almost touching the station
wagon, would soon engulf it too along with it's older occupants. I also slowly
realized another dismaying fact: as we were touching
the station wagon we too would soon be engulfed next. It really
looked as if we might all burn up in a matter of moments. And, even
though I knew I was probably going to die there, I was surprised at how
calm I felt. The calmness was un-explainable, except maybe to other
Christians in similar circumstances. And although I was quite surprised to
find out that I was not at all afraid to die, I also did not want
to be saved from the impending disaster as a paralyzed and somewhat burnt
up victim for life either.
"...and they actually ran up and DRAGGED
THE ENTIRE CAR, along with the elderly folks in it AWAY FROM THE BURNING VEHICLE. "
So, I prayed this silent, very heartfelt prayer:
"Lord, please heal me or take me home." In that VERY same
moment the prayer was made I immediately felt my body get it's full
feelings back. Also, at that very instant, Valerie came 'back to
life', starting to moan and slowly move. THANK YOU LORD! I
immediately asked her "Are you alright?" Later she recalled that as
it did not sound like my voice she thought it was God asking
her. (More like my voice was not quite my own after such a terrible
jar, as I could barely breath properly as the wind had been knocked out of
me. This I realized more clearly later, as I had seat belt marks
branded completely across my chest in two places. Besides, as I told Valerie that He would not have
to ask her, He would know if she was ok or not.)
At the same time I prayed my prayer, a few noble citizens
had gone into action. They ran up and actually DRAGGED THE ENTIRE
CAR, along with the elderly folks in it AWAY FROM THE BURNING VEHICLE! Thank you Lord for such an act
of heroism. And, as I was no longer paralyzed, I slowly climbed out
over Valerie (my door would not open) and then noticed how blood covered
she was on the complete right side of her body. As I surveyed our
car I realized the extent of the damage to it for the first time.
Yeah, I'd noticed our front windshield had been cracked all over, but that
had been all. Now I noticed that the rear bumper of my car, on the
passenger side, was pushed all the way up to the rear of the front seats.
I slowly realized that I would probably never drive this vehicle again- it
was totaled if ever a car was.
At that point I also noticed both of our sunglasses were laying back by
our rear tire outside on the ground on Valerie's side. Having been on our faces
only moments
earlier, now they where twisted up and intertwined together, as if in
some kind of final love-embrace. I stood and tried to figure
out how that happened. Everything was still happening in slow
motion. My mind was not grasping things as fast as usual. Was this
my sign? They were certainly history. I then noticed all of my loose
coin change, kept in a space between the seats, now all on Valerie's
floorboard, mixed in with tons of broken window shards. I started to
pick them up, mostly pennies, as I was pretty sure I would never see the
car again either and did not want to lose my money.
She screamed in disbelief,
"get that lady to safety and out of that car".
At this point, maybe two or three minutes into the surreal
events, I had not moved Valerie, nor had anyone
suggested to do so, especially not knowing the extent of her injuries.
A lady sheriff, maybe the first on the scene, drove up and jumped out of
her car not far from in front of us. She surveyed the scene: wrecked cars were
strewn around helter-skelter facing in all directions; people were
mulling around, some pulling lifeless bodies from vehicles; a burning car
with an injured man laying nearby behind it; and then me, picking up pennies
from a destroyed car while talking to a blood covered lady- Valerie.
She screamed in disbelief as she exited her vehicle, "get that lady out of that car
and over to safety".
So I immediately realized the gravity of the situation and helped Valerie
up and over to a curb with a couple of other folks. I look back now and
realize I had been in total shock and my thought were too scattered to
think properly.
While we waited on a paramedic to arrive and attend to
Valerie a stranger appeared out of the growing crowds and offered us his
handkerchief for Valerie's cut neck, which was still bleeding profusely. (To
this day her scars give testament to the Lord's mercy towards us.
She also named the place 'miracle hill'.)
The paramedics arrived and started to give Valerie tests
to see if she had certain types of injuries. I was operating on
adrenalin and no one, not even I, knew I was hurt. They eventually
While on our trip to the
hospital the driver was not sure if he could stop at a light in time and
slammed on the brakes, throwing the lady paramedic on top of me.
strapped her onto a stretcher as I watched them load
some of the more seriously injured into the Life Flight helicopter that
landed nearby moments earlier. The young man saved from the burning car, and one of
the elderly people, were transported out, but to no avail we learned
later...unfortunately, they both died.
While on our trip to the hospital (no siren, we did not
seem that hurt) the driver was not sure if he could get through one of the lights
in time and slammed on the brakes, throwing the lady paramedic on top of
me. Then she realizes, when we were half way there, that she had
forgotten her medical bag back at the scene and said we had to go back
to get it!!? She had been real gung-ho when she arrived and was way too
excited, explaining to all, and to no one in particular, that it was her first
traffic accident. (It was our first too, and hopefully our
last. We met people later on that said they had witnessed it from
the gas station there and could not soundly sleep for days afterwards.)
At the hospital, as the regular emergency entrance was
being remodeled, we were unfortunately unloaded and then ushered over a
rough brick flooring at a temporary entrance designed only for looks. It was
beginning to look like one of those days; if we did not have bad luck we would have had no
luck at all. The rough bouncing, while on the hard stretcher boards,
was another insult to injury, no pun intended.
"the doctors
told us we would both need chiropractic care for the rest of our lives!"
They X-rayed Valerie and I to see if we had internal
injuries. I felt fine but they warned me that when I sat up, having
had to lie down for transportation, tests, etc., that I would
probably have a spinning condition to attend to. I boldly claimed
that I was sure I was just fine, as I was fine before I was put on the
stretcher. I barely started to sit up when the
world instantly started to spin out of control and I started to lose my
balance and felt sick. Whoa, what was that??! I instantly laid
back down hoping the event would
pass quickly. After a while I tried to get back up and it started
all over again.
This time I went much more slowly, but still the room spun out of control,
slowly slowing down and stopping after a few seconds of being vertical.
It was disconcerting, and the worst part was that it WOULD CONTINUE FOR ANOTHER WEEK every time I
laid down OR got up! It was a very amazing, and very unfortunate,
symptom.
Click photo to enlarge.
The helicopter photo of the accident
we were
involved in was published in the Union Tribune. It was in April of
1991.
Detailed info can be seen by clicking on the photo.
Valerie had many stitches applied to her right elbow and
under her chin. Her outfit was full of dried blood and we called our
friends the
Gibb's explaining the complementary dinner we were going to treat them to
would have to wait. They were nice enough to offer to put us up for
a few days to help us recuperate. (That was needed more than we knew.)
I had to wear a neck brace, one of those white cuff looking things, as my muscles were
way too sore to
actually hold my head up.
My chest was more sore than I knew, and the doctors told us, after
hearing how hard we were hit, we would both
need chiropractic care for the rest of our lives!
We
said if the doctors said there was no know medical help that could help us
permanently, and that we would need chiropractic care for the rest of
our lives, we would go to someone who we knew could help us now- Jesus.
A couple of days later, after a mid-week Horizon Church service, we went
up and got prayed on by pastor Mike McIntosh. And a miracle happened, within the week our pains left us (even though we were told they would get
worse, not better, for two or more weeks).
"Last but not least, I
figured if I could go through something like this, I could handle a
marriage, especially with someone as lovely as Valerie Wong, uh, I mean
Valerie Seewald."
We visited an attorney, not to sue for a
bunch of money, but just to see if we could get enough to replace the car and pay the medical
bills. He said
since so much death and destruction took place in this particular
'accident', someone like us would get
nothing out of the $50,000 total coverage she had. (I had cancelled mine
because I was out of the country making art for a month, thus saving a
little money, and the company I had reinstate it failed to because they
said I had not sent in a deposit after requesting a start-up, OUCH.)
So we were out of luck, but did not fret, as we had our
health.
Note on another miracle; we rec'd enough a year later, out of the blue, to cover
both our medical expenses and car loss from that insurance agency! All of this came in
unexpectedly as we'd never sent estimates or bills to anyone. Thank
you Lord.
Thoughts later on...
A silver platter that we borrowed from the Gibb's, that we
were going to return that day, was behind my seat. After this accident, it
was impossible to get anything out from behind our seats, as the back seat
was completely crushed into the front ones. The rear bumper on the
passengers side was pretty much up to the back of Valerie's seat.
That pretty much flattens the back seats pretty well to accomplish this
feat. Had anyone been in our back seats, they would have been
history.
Valerie resting with bandages on her arm and chin at the
Gibb's home.
I figured the double bruised, seat belt mark effect was
from the Volvo hitting into us at about the reported 60 m.p.h. the old
lady had hit him at. The first 'explosion thing' must have been after we
were thrust back from the initial impact and the second was when we hit
the car in front of us, causing us to then be thrown forward instead of
backward and spinning around. All at the same time we had been spun around from
being hit on the back right side. The car we were forced into also had major
rear end damage and was totaled but not half as bad as us.
I called my parents the next day, you know, to get them up
to speed on our lives lately. Well, I started by telling my
mom, who lived 50 miles south on the other side of San Diego city, down
close to Tijuana, Mex., that we had had an 'interesting day' the day before.
And before I could say anything else she said
"you weren't involved in that nine car pile-up in Encinitas were you?"
"Well yeah mom, actually we were" I honestly replied, embarrassed one
of here non-ending negative assumptions could finally come true (I mean, figure the
odds we would be the ones involved with some 100,000 folks in our area!).
My dad was kind enough to loan us his car until I
could get another; thanks Dad. (Another
miracle story, he just had a stroke but our prayers got him back to normal
in 'miracle time'- but that's for a book someday, right?)
Michael Seewald, Arnold Gibbs and Michael's
new
fiancé, Valerie Wong, 1992.
Last but not least; I figured if I could go through
something like this, I could get through a marriage, especially with
someone as lovely as Valerie Wong, uh, I mean Valerie Seewald.
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