Thursday, April 9, 2009

gratitude

I don't read her blog very often, but once in a while I'll see it on someone else's blog and I can't help but be curious about her recovery, her life, her emotions. Read this post and tell me you aren't grateful for the breath you take.

~I decided to add to this post. Not to take Stephanie's experience lightly..at ALL, but I can somewhat relate to her feelings when her plane was crashing. When Geof. was almost done with school, finishing up his final hours, and doing quite a bit of cross country flights, one weekend, he invited me to go along with him to Seattle. On our way back, Geof. and the other pilot were up front (of course) and a mechanic and I were in the back. This plane was BRAND new and the reason we were flying a mechanic back to Provo was because Geof.'s school had had to fly him up to Seattle to fix the plane when we got there because some poor ignorant fool had poured the wrong kind of gasoline in the engine...woops.
So, we were stranded a few days more than planned and were finally on our way back. While flying over some part of Idaho, the other pilot calmly mentioned that one of the engines had gone out. I tried to talk to Geof. and ask him what that meant, if we were okay, etc.???, but he was quiet, busy working the instruments of the plane, and didn't respond. That was my first clue that something was not right. I looked at the mechanic, as well, who also had a troubled look on his face. He didn't respond to me either. That's it, I knew we were crashing. The same thoughts ran through my head-"Who will take care of my kids?", "Have I done my best here on earth?"..etc. And all I could see was my kids' faces. For what seemed like an eternity (probably only a few minutes), Geof. finally responded and told me he was landing the plane. Still not really positive about whether that meant they would 'hopefully' land the plane safely, but I did try to trust that all would be well either way, and prayed like crazy that it would!! We did land safely, and as soon as we got out the tears came. My heart was beating like crazy. Geof. hadn't realized that I was this nervous and didn't know that he should of clearly stated that airplanes CAN fly with only one engine. Just not forever.
Why hadn't he told me that in the beginning??

2 comments:

julie said...

what darla, that is horrifying!!

Emily said...

I totally forgot about the near death experience you had. I've read Nie since September or so, I went through and read every single one of the posts she wrote and of course followed every word CJane wrote during the whole tragedy and every day since! They've changed my life, I want to be a mom like NieNie. I'm glad you found and like them too, can you believe they lived right down the road from us in Provo, over in the tree streets? Crazy!