The Story

My cousin was on her way back to school after lunch one Friday afternoon. She was in a special program at her high school, the Natural Resources Academy, where they focused on different careers in the natural world. She wanted to work with the Orcas in SeaWorld. She was focused, and driven, so specializing in something in high school made a lot of sense for her. They had gone on a field trip that morning, out to the coast. How a whole class of students made a field trip to the coast and back in one morning, I'll never know.

She was driving her truck, one of her best friends in the seat next to her. It was a sunny day. The drive to get back to NRA goes down a windy back-woods road. My cousin was always a safe driver -- she was the kind of kid who you had to prod to get to go the posted speed. Slow and cautious. She probably got made fun of, but I doubt she ever cared.

They were about halfway there. Going around a left curve, a wall of rocks to her right and a slight ledge to her left, she drifted. Her tire tracks barely cross over the white line in her lane. She over-corrected, probably jerked the wheel thinking, 'Oh, crap,' and slammed on her breaks at the same time. The combination made her lose control of the truck. She veered too hard to the left. The truck literally flew over the embankment. Airborne for about twenty feet, the front driver side of the truck slammed into the trunk of a tree. The force of the hit sent the vehicle spinning clockwise, knocking the driver's side of the truck into another tree. The truck continued to spin and corkscrew, landing 180 degrees and upside down from where it had started.

The other girl, her friend, was seriously injured. She had some organs punctured, I believe, and some spine damage. She pulled through, which is a miracle. She has a lot of work ahead of her, probably years of physical therapy and pain and determination, but she did survive.

My cousin did not. I dont' know what her injuries were. I don't know what exactly killed her. I don't know how long she was alive after the truck crashed. All I know is that she didn't make it.

Later, I got a chance to talk to some of the nieghbors that live right next to the crash site. It turns out, she wasn't the first person to die there. Three others had died over the last ten years, in the exact same spot as my cousin, the most recent just over a year ago. The nieghbors had set up a tally one year, and recorded over 30 accidents in the same spot in less than eight months.

She wasn't speeding. She wasn't driving carelessly around the turns. She wasn't on her phone or texting. She was inexperienced. And the worst thing happened to her. Which is what hurts the most for me. How can someone be so good, so pleasant and doing all the right things, and still have this happen?

This is my comforting thought: She would have chosen this. If she had had a moment, if she had been asked, whether she wanted to die then or live and have her friend die, if she had been given that choice, this is how she would have wanted it. I truly believe that she would have been that giving, that brave. I trust that wherever she is now, whatever she's doing, she looks at this and knows that what happened is right. We can't see it or feel it, we are all left feeling how wrong this is, but I believe that she can now see a bigger picture than we can. And, hopefully, someday that picture will be revealed to the rest of us.