Piano Is Canceled

Sunday night at 10 p.m. my family (Mom, Dad, Nate, and Nick) was hit from behind by a Davis County deputy sheriff. He was going 55 mph, and Dad was barely creeping forward, waiting for the traffic to move as the light turned green. They were on the highway just a couple minutes from our home. The car is totalled, completely smashed in in the back as you can see in the pictures, and smooshed in the front where they hit the car in front of them.

The air bags deployed and everyone had their seat belt on, but the impact was so great that the front seats didn't remain locked in their upright position. As Mom and Dad bounced back from the air bags, the seat backs reclined, Dad's seat colliding with Nate's face. His jaw is out of line now and his upper back is super stiff. Dad has cuts and goose eggs on both his forearms and elbows, his right shin, and above his right eye. His shoulder and back are very sore, so don't hug him too tight—he yelps.











Nicholas got a scratch/burn on his right arm and bruised his right leg, but other than that he hasn't felt stiff or sore. He went to school a couple hours late this morning, anxious to tell his class what had happened. Mom was injured the worst. She has a compound fracture in her back, so basically she broke a vertebrae. She's flat on her back and needs help to get up and shuffle to the baño. She also drinks through a straw, just to give you a better mental image.:) The back windshield shattered and some of the glass hit her in the head, so I got to clean the blood out of her hair this morning. I love my mom. Okay, I love my family.

When the accident happened, President Prows, who is in my parents' stake presidency, drove past in the right-hand lane on the highway. His wife saw our van and said, "I think that's the Newbolds!" He dropped her off at home and then drove back to the scene right as they were putting a neck brace on Mom and loading her onto a stretcher. There were two cars that were so nice to pull over and let my family sit in their cars, since my family was worried about sitting in the van in case of a gas leak. The guys in the car stopped the bleeding from Mom's head and let her wait there until the ambulance arrived. By the time Mom got to the hospital, our bishop was there with his wife and President Prows, and gave her a priesthood blessing right away. Dad and Nate came later in another ambulance, and Nick and I met up with everyone in the ER.

Nate's the one who called me after the accident. I was in my jammies in bed. I'd ignored the home phone ringing and the doorbell ringing, but luckily I was still awake when my cell phone buzzed at about 10:30 p.m. I'd gone with my family to visit my grandparents, but I drove over in my own car because I wanted to be in bed early to start the week off right. I'd left G&G's at 9:40 p.m. I threw on jeans, a sweatshirt, and flip-flops. Nate made it sound like the accident wasn't that bad, but when I got there I wished I'd worn shoes. There was glass all over and about 10 cars with flashing lights on top. The intersection looked like it'd been shut down, everything was so bright and there was only one lane open! I parked in the middle of the highway, behind the fire truck, and turned my flashers on.

I saw our van before I could find my family. It was really emotional. Then a police officer walked me across the highway to my family. Mom had already been taken to the ER, but they were checking out Dad's cut leg and were loading him onto a stretcher. Then as Nate's back and jaw started tightening up, they loaded him into the same ambulance as Dad. Both of them were also given priesthood blessings once they got to the hospital. We are surrounded by good, caring people!

We were so, so blessed that I hadn't been in the van with my family. Nick most likely would've been the one in the back seat of the van (because he's the youngest and usually gets told to sit in the back). I don't like to think about what would've happened to our little Nick or anyone who would've been sitting back there. In the picture you'll see that the back seat got pushed right up against the back of Nick's seat in the middle of the van. Angeles were protecting our family.

The latest news we have on Mom is that she got fitted for a back brace Monday evening and is to have it delivered today. She has an appointment with a neurosurgeon in two weeks (he said that he wouldn't be able to help her if he saw her any sooner), and she is to wear her back brace for six weeks. Her vertebrae will heal, but since her spine was also compressed, they may need to do a procedure where they pour cement in there to add space back in between her vertebrae. Or something like that.

Thank you to all of you who have already shown so much love and concern, and have let us know we are in your prayers. We're so grateful for you and for your friendship! We will do our best to keep you posted on everyone's health.

And here's Emma in a bag, to end this blog the right way! We love this baby! She came to visit yesterday and now is in Pennsylvania with her mommy, visiting her grandparents for six weeks while her daddy goes to Jordan on an archaeological dig.