The Crash

The Crash 05/19/2011

Sunday afternoon around 5 pm I got a phone call from my husband. His voice was shaky and there was a lot of noise in the background. The words he said to me are some that will never leave me. “My helicopter crashed. Everyone is fine.  I’m in the hospital. Waiting on x-rays of my shoulder. I’ll call you as soon as I can. I love you.”

When I heard that, it was all I could do not to drop the phone. My friend was driving when I got the call but about 20 minutes later I had to drive. I could hardly focus on the road and had more than thirty minutes of driving ahead of me so I called my mom. I know I’m not suppose to drive and talk (and I’ll be the first person to tell someone they’re stupid for doing it!) but it was either I call my mom or I probably get into a car crash. My mom helped me get home and I went right in, grabbed a phone and sat at the computer looking for any news of the crash.

For the next four hours, I sat at the computer, reading articles, looking at pictures and checking the ringer on the phone. And trying to process the many emotions and thoughts running through me. All I could think about was that he had to be ok. We haven’t had enough time together yet. We’ve only been married for eight months. We haven’t had a chance to start a family. What if his injury is life threatening? How will I handle life without him? How is he dealing with this? Will he get to come home? I was torn between crying because I was so scared; crying because he was in a crash and crying because I was so happy he survived. But to be honest, I could hardly even cry. I was in such shock that I didn’t know what to do. I knew I could hardly talk, couldn’t stop shaking and couldn’t process a coherent thought.

At 9 pm, my phone rang. I grabbed the phone, took a deep breath and answered. Not knowing if it was my husband or someone else ready to give me bad news. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I heard my husband’s voice on the other end. He sounded so much better, his voice strong, and he told me what had happened. The helicopter tipped over as they were landing and crashed near a river. He told me he felt people fall on top of him and figured that was how he hurt his shoulder. The x-rays showed he had separated his shoulder. We only got to talk for a few minutes but hearing his voice made me feel so much better. I needed to hear from him that he was ok to really believe it. Later that same night I got to see him on a video chat, got to see the bruised, swollen shoulder and his smiling face. He was excited because he got to fly in a Blackhawk and because he got a package from his mom and one from me (with a letter from our dog in it!). And I was still panicking because he was involved in a helicopter crash.

Since the accident we have both received an incredible amount of support from our friends and family. I have learned so much from this. I learned exactly who my support group is and am thankful for each person in that group.The biggest lesson, one that I thought I already had down, is to never take anything for granted. Tell your family and friends how you feel about them as often as you can, because you never know when you won’t be able to. I came so close to losing my best friend and soulmate- my husband.  And I am so grateful he made it out of that helicopter safely.

May 15, 2011- A Chinook helicopter, carrying 5 crew members and 25 passengers crashed in a remote area of Afghanistan. And every one of them survived. An incredible day in Canadian history.