It was November 5^th, 2002. Like every morning at 6:10a.m. my alarm clock woke me up. It was time to go to work. I dressed and I had my breakfast. Then I went to my car. It was very cold. The Weather Channel showed it was going to be very cold that week.

As I was driving to work, I turned on the radio to listen to my favorite station. I had almost reached my workplace when suddenly I felt my car was shaking. I realized I was losing control. I thought to myself, “God, what is happening? Everything was okay with my car before.” I didn’t know the road was frozen and I was driving on black ice. I lost control totally. I was going to crash into the lamppost! I just said, “Oh my God, help me!” To avoid the lamppost I turned the steering wheel all the way in the opposite direction, crossed the street and smashed into two parked cars. It was terrible! I couldn’t believe it! I just had a car accident!

Immediately a man ran to see me. I saw a lot of smoke coming out of my car. I tried to get out of the car but I couldn’t. I felt like all of my bones were crushed. I moved my hand slowly, took my cell phone out of my jacket pocket, and called my cousin and told her what had just occurred. While I was talking the police and an ambulance came and took me to the hospital, where I stayed for three days. I was scared and in pain. I felt lonely. How I missed my family and my mother. At that time I really felt how distant I was from them.

There were some nice people who helped me in the hospital. I will never forget how on the second day a hospital volunteer who had a violin in his hands knocked on my door and asked me if he could play music for me. I was thrilled! I said, “Yes, please, I love music!” He started to play a beautiful tune. While he was playing I started to think, “I thank God for my family, my friends, and I thank God for this great opportunity to be alive.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eliana Deoliveira is from Brazil.  She has been here for four years.  She works at Future Electronics Distribution Center in Bolton.  Her future goals are to improve her reading and speaking and to get the opportunity to go to college. She is an intermediate ESOL student at QCC/Assabet Program