Rod and Brenda Wreck!

On the day after Thanksgiving on the way from the Concord covered bridge toward Floyd Road, Rod did not see the stop sign at Hicks Road and was struck broadside by a new Cadillac.

The Cadillac struck the heavy '56 Mercury on the right side and spun it around to hit a utility pole on the corner of Hicks and Concord Road. It caved the left rear, spinning the car again and throwing Brenda out onto the roadside. This was before the days of seatbelts, which could have saved us both from serious injury. Rod banged around in the car and was cut up by the shatter rearview mirror, but was otherwise ok.

When I got to Brenda, she was obviously badly cut up by glass and freshly cut stobs of weeds and brush on the roadside, but was trying to get up. I kept her lying down - a short time later I heard the scream of an ambulance coming. Someone at the corner house had called for an ambulance and they got there very quickly. They put her on a board and loaded her into the ambulance and I sat beside her for a screaming ride in to Georgia Baptist Hospital. She was drifting in and out of consiousness. Praying hard and holding her hand, thinking that I didn't know whether she would make it alive or not, we finally reached the hospital and the rest of the evening as they did x-rays and diagnostic work is a blur. I remember wandering up and down the hospital hall, covered with blood from my superficial forehead cuts. It was late that evening when I received any assurance that she was going to be alright, albeit suffering from a severe spinal fracture and a head injury. Her mother and father came to the hospital, and I remember being touched with how understanding they were in light of my terrible guilt and shame for having let this happen. In all my subsequent years of dealing with Herb, my appreciation for him was always colored by his kindness to me in this traumatic event and the difficult recovery which followed.

Brenda was in a body brace for about a month. Although difficult, the recovery progressed and we took her home to the Duncan's house for continued recuperation. Family and friends were very supportive. She was out of school for three months, but then returned to finish her nursing school work to earn her diploma.