My Story

People always told me to cherish everything I loved, because things change. Sometimes more briskly than we would expect. Maybe one day when we wake up they might not be there anymore. Little did I know how right they were. I lost my boyfriend and his sister in just one night. It's hard to understand that in that one night so many people's lives were changed forever.

The Smith family all lived fairy tale lives. Michael was the captain of his football team and a destined homecoming king. His sister Ann-Marie was a seven year old doll, with shoulder length curly blond hair and eyes as blue as the summer sky. Perhaps she would have been Miss America year 2015, but we will never know. Mrs. Smith had everything she ever dreamed of, a successful career, a wonderful husband, and two perfect kids.

Then there was me. I wasn't in the immediate family, actually I wasn't in the family at all. Even though their home and love was shared with me as if it was my own. Michael and I had known each other six years and we started going together two years ago, so I was basically the future sister/daughter-in-law.

Thirteen year old, Michael, his sister, Ann-Marie, and their mom, Linda, were on their way to a surprise birthday party for their father, Mark. That fateful night, October the 20th in the year 1998, a drunk driver hit the Smith's car head on, carrying Michael, Ann-Marie, and Linda. After the car finished its deadly swerves and flips, Ann-Marie laid dead from the impact, Linda's legs were trapped under the car leaving her paralyzed from the hips down, and Michael lay scattered in pieces trapped in the car. He lay there in pain and suffering for two hours while the Jaws of Life tried to free his body from the mangled metal. And on the way to Intensive Care in the ambulance he fell into a coma. The drunk driver that caused havoc in their lives and mine walked away from the scene with only a few bruises.

Later that night when I received a call from Mark telling me to come to the hospital, I realized the ugly truth. All of those scary feelings and thoughts of losing him set in on the four-hour trip to the hospital to be by Michael's side. In the car I also realized that life is so not fair, why was it my boyfriend that was lying in a coma? What did I do to deserve this pain?

After spending the long trip in the car trying to tell myself this was just a dream, I walked into his room, and realized that it was really happening. I got there just in time to see the doctors unhooking his life support. He had no chance of living; it was only a matter of time. I didn't believe them, or at least I didn't want to.

I sat there for more than two hours holding his hand, coaxing him to wake up, not to leave me, praying to God, and absolutely bawling all at the same time. After what felt like an eternity of struggle, I felt his hand turn ice cold and I heard his heartbeat flatline. He was dead at 2:07 AM.

Instantly, nurses appeared and began rolling him out, but I couldn't let go, not yet. So they left him with me. I just couldn't believe he was gone, I thought maybe he'll wake up, because Michael never ceased to amaze me. So I stayed, for probably an hour, waiting, hoping he would come back to me, but he never did.

Later that week at his and Ann-Marie's funeral, I sang a tribute to the both of them, and put some closure on that horrible night. I just wondered, if there was a God, why would he ruin such a perfect family and let the drunk that caused it, stand up, brush himself off, and walk away. I also became disgusted at that horrible man that ruined two families forever with just a few drinks. Now I realize that God did this to me so that I would encourage others, to please not make the same mistake. It ruins everything and it kills innocent children that deserve a life. So now I ask of you please Don't Drink and Drive, we can't afford to lose any more prefect families in a world of so little.

To Michael-
I will love you forever,
Please be my guardian angel.
Love, Your Soul Mate