Face to Face with DEATH

February 25^th
 

It was on a beautiful Sunday afternoon that I came face to face with death.

I should probably start from the beginning. It was a Sunday just like every other Sunday. By some miracle, we all made it to early service. When we got out Charli, Hannah, and I decided we needed to go for a drive. Not wanted to. Needed to. It was too gorgeous out. It was probably the first Spring day in Moscow. The sky was clear and pale blue. The sun warmed up the Earth’s frozen bones from the bitter winter. A refreshing breeze blew occasionally. We needed to drive. 

So, we did. We headed out, not knowing where we would end up. Somehow, Charli ended up driving us in the direction of Troy (or maybe it was Lewistown? I’m not familiar with other towns around here soo...). We were happily driving along back country roads, windows down and tunes blasting, when we were rudely stopped by snow. Snow? This was our Spring Sunday, how dare it interrupt. Somehow, this road missed the memo that it was Spring now, as there was enough piled in the road to block our path. Reluctantly, we turned around. 

Nevertheless, this did nothing but lift our spirits as we were now forced to go on a different unknown adventure. We began driving aimlessly again. We ended up on Paradise Ridge Road, parts of which still had snow that missed the memo as well. When we were almost to the end, Charli got a text that beckoned her back home, so we turned around. 

This is where everything went wrong. As we were driving back, we began sliding on the parts of the road covered in snow. We were surprised because it hadn’t seemed that bad on the way up. It was manageable at first. It was on this one sloping bend that death himself stood in the middle of the road, waiting for us. Charli lost control of the car and we began spinning as we went down the hill. Luckily, she had been driving slow and careful, so our spin was slow. However, I think this made it more terrifying. Slowly, as we spun, we started heading toward the side of the road where there was no shoulder, just a drop off. It felt like time stood still, as my heart stopped, and my stomach sunk, we watched as we painstakingly moved towards the drop off second by second, wondering what was going to happened to us. 

Luckily, we had made it far enough down the hill that we reached a point where a snow bank was blocking the drop off. As we did a complete 180, the car slid against the snowbank and stopped, now backwards. Silence, then Charli telling Hannah and I to get out of the car. We were only half way down the hill, Charli had to try to turn the car around and get to the bare gravel. I refused to get out at first, telling her I didn’t want her to die alone. Reluctantly, Hannah and I got out and slipped our way up the road, a few feet from the car. We watched as Charli began maneuvering the car around, backing up and pulling forward as much as she dared. She had only gotten the car turned sideways when she began going down the hill again. We watched in horror as she slid completely sideways down the middle of the road, about 10 or so feet. But, Charli is a boss, so of course she was able to gain control. She stopped and began her slow turn around, then slid until she reached the clear road. I glided down the ice and hopped in, finally feeling my heart begin to pump again.

We found ourselves laughing the whole way home, recounting the experience and marveling at Charli’s boss a** driving skills. The ride back was all the merrier with the victorious feeling of dodging the reapers devious trap. Now, of course this is a little dramatic. But, in our defense, this is how we felt as it happened. We felt triumphant, unstoppable. We felt immensely thankful for the life God has given each of us.