Recently reading through Henry Wise's "Book of Memories" (2003), he talked about angels in Highland Park and how he thought that angels had protected the kids at various times growing up. I agree, I do believe there were guardian angels watching over Highland Park. Whenever I think of this story, I cannot help but think of the verse in the Bible where God promises he will not give us more than we can stand. I always wondered who He was protecting, my Mother, Father, me, or someone I didn't know yet. I always thought this was an indication that He had something special He wanted me to do.

The tuesday before Derby in 1984, my friends and I left school and went to Regina's house on Mohawk to study. Our plan was to study for a while and take a break for dinner and to go to McDaniels' Funeral Home to pay our respects to one of the neighbors who had passed away. My father was in the hospital,he was terminally ill with cancer and not expected to live through the week. The doctors had told us he could not be upset for any reason as it could adversely affect his already deteriorating condition. I had been at the hospital for several days in a row and he told me not to come to visit that night to stay home, study, and get some rest. My Dad always put everyone else ahead of him,up till the very end he always worried about his kids more than he did himself.

Regina and I were the only two left at her house studying as the other classmate had left to go home on the bus. We decided we were going to take a break and go get something to eat. I was getting very tired as I had not had much sleep staying at the hospital. We got up and was headed to my car, a 1972 Buick LaSabre Coupe, parked in front of Regina's house. She lived just three doors up from Big O's Tavern on Louisville Avenue. Outside there were kids playing in the yards and on the street, while their parents sat on the porch. It was a warm, sunny spring day.

I walked to the front of my car and exactly in front of my hood ornament, I stopped and stood there. The only noise that you could hear was the children playing. I remember not being able to move forward, it was as if someone was standing there holding me in place, I finally turned and walked back to the passenger side of my car. The whole time I was thinking that the sleep depravation was really getting to me and I was loosing my mind. I thought I have to do something so Regina and everyone outside doesn't think I have lost my mind. So I walked to the passenger door and stuck my key in the lock and unlocked the door. I took my keys back out and had them in my left hand, with my right hand I reached down to open the door. Just as I had hold of the door handle, my car suddenly moved and was moving towards me. I remember pushing Regina back as the car knocked me back. I remember trying to put it all together. I remember looking in my car and seeing the gearshift in park and no one in the car, I looked at the keys in my left hand. I looked at Regina and said "my car is moving", I must have had the most bewildered look on my face. Suddenly I heard tires squealing in front of me and looked up seeing glass, my hubcap, and bumper laying in the street and a burgundy car taking off. It suddenly all made sense, and I was able to get myself together and get the license number of the car. I could not have told you one single thing about the car other than the license number and the color. My Uncle is a Retired Jefferson County Police Officer and he and my father always told me if something happens make sure I got the license number so that is all I concentrated on.

We went back in the house, called the police and gave them the license number. when the officer arrived we knew car was several blocks down the street and the driver had went back to Big O's. The officer headed to Big O's as the man came walking down the sidewalk and identified himself as the driver. The officer told me they arrested him for public intoxication, but they could not arrest him for DUI as he had left the scene and they did not see him driving. Because he came back, they did not believe they could charge him with leaving the scene of the accident. The officer wanted to call an ambulance for me as he said I was injured and in shock, I refused and begged him not to. I was only 17 at the time, so if the ambulance came by law they had to take me to the hospital until one of my parents came to get me. I explained to the officer that my dad was terminally ill and my mother had high blood pressure and I was afraid it would cause her to have a heart attack if they called her and told her they were taking me to the hospital. I agreed to call my mom, have her come and get me and let her take me to the hospital, so she would know I wasn't badly hurt. The officer made me promise, asked me which hospital I would go to and I said St. Mary and Elizabeth's and he finally agreed. The officer told me how lucky I was that I was on the passenger side of my car, otherwise he was sure that I would have been killed.

I did just what I promised I would do, I called my mom and she did tell my dad. To this day the doctor's think the scare of me being hurt gave him the will to get better. At the hospital the doctor asked me what happened and I told him he wouldn't believe me if I told him, he said try me. I said I got hit by my own car, and he asked me how that happened. After all was said and done,the doctor was amazed that I did not have any broken bones, but I had a lot of deep muscular bruises to my arm and legs and a jammed elbow.

When we finally looked at my car, the man had hit my car starting at the driver's side door scraping it and finally colliding with my front fender. When we looked at my car, I thought my mother was going to breakdown, thinking she was going to lose her husband before the week was over and seeing how close she had came to loosing her child. If I had been on my side of the car, I would have been crushed between the two cars. As it was my car, the 1972 Buick LaSabre, had been knocked 2 feet and 2 inches from its' original location.

The next morning my Dad called me from the hospital and asked how I felt, I remember telling him that I felt like I had been hit by a Mack Truck, but really it was the Buick and a Chrysler Cordoba. I told him my car was totalled because their was extensive damage to the front end and all the front-end work we had recently done, would at the very least have to be redone. He said that was okay and that we could replace cars, but not people and he was so glad I wasn't hurt any worse than I was. By the end of the week he was home from the hospital,and he lived until October 29th of that year.

We later found out that the man who hit me, had found out that day he was loosing his job at International Harvester, after 15 years. I know there were angels there protecting me that day, there is no other explanation for me not physically being able to walk around my car, and it was certainly a miracle that only I and my car were hurt, none of the children that were playing in the street were hurt, but they were only 50 feet further down the street.

I have often wondered, who God was saving that day. Was it my Mom and Dad who couldn't have beared losing their youngest child? Was it me, could I have not beared the pain or the possibility of life in wheel chair? Or was it the stranger who had lost his job, could he have lived with himself if I had been killed? Was God saving me for some special work? Only God knows if it were one of the reasons or all of the reasons, but magnitude of his love and watchful eye really hit home for me that day.

Early one cold spring morning I was headed to the track at Bellarmine to meet my class. The night before I had stayed up late helping my boyfriend at the time get his Chevy ready for the weekend car show. We were both members of the Mt. Washington 4-wheel Drive and Chevy Club. We finished his car but did not get finished with my Malibu. He told me to take his car home that night and he would finish my car the next morning while I was in class, I agreed. As I pulled up on the ramp off crittenden drive next to the old James Russell Lowe Elementary School to get on the expressway his car overheated. I got out and popped the hood but there was too much steam to really identify the problem. I went to the trunk to get a toolbox so I could identify and fix the problem and to my surprise there was no toolbox, not even so much as a screwdriver in the trunk. I couldn't believe this, I thought every guy in the world carried a toolbox, I never left home without my tools and my hydraulic jack. At this point since it was only about 7 a.m. I started trying to think of what to do and who to call so I could get some tools. I decided this early in the morning there was only one person close I could think of that would be up and not already at work, my Aunt Myrtle. Aunt Myrtle lived on Park Blvd, so I started walking to her house.

Upon arriving at Aunt Myrtle's, I knocked on the front door but there was no answer, I could hear music inside the house so I walked around to the back of the house. The back door was open, Aunt Myrtle was cleaning up from breakfast in the kitchen and singing with the radio. I called out to her as I was coming up the steps, so I wouldn't startle her. She let me in and asked why I was out so early in the morning. I explained that my car had broke down on the ramp as I was headed to school. She insisted upon fixing me breakfast after I called Bellarmine and left a message for my instructor. She had just finished her dishes and I didn't want to make her cook again just for me so I finally agreed to toast and orange juice. We talked while I ate catching up on everything. As I finished and started to clean up, I asked her if she had a screwdriver and a pair of Pliers I could borrow for a little while. I remember her looking at me with this strange look and she said "well yes I think I can find a screwdriver and a pair of pliers around here". "But" she said, "I won't give them to you until you tell me what you are going to do with them". I told her I was going to go fix the car so I could get home and to my afternoon class. She Laughed, she thought that was the funniest thing that I was going to fix my car with only a screwdriver and a pair of pliers and no one to help me.

She did let me borrow here screwdriver and pliers and by the time I got back to the car, it was cool enough I was able to see the top radiator hose was busted. I took off the old hose and headed to Toohey's. Once I had replaced the hose and cleaned off Aunt Myrtle's tools, I headed back to her house to return them. She laughingly told me that she just couldn't believe I fixed the car myself and with only a srewdriver and a pair of pliers.

Every time I saw Aunt Myrtle after that, she would tell that story to whoever was around and she would tell me, I think for Christmas I will give you a screwdriver and a pair of pliers tied up in a red ribbon.