No. I did not have a mother's premonition. I simply did not get a phone call from my kid and he always called or texted when he said he would.
3:36pm--- I did what I was not suppose to do - I GPS'd his phone because he wasn't answering and said he would be home by 3:30, but that he would call as he got to Austin. His car was near Rockdale. I felt uncomfortable that it was still an hour away but thought maybe he made a long stop and lost coverage until Taylor.
3:56pm--- GPS'd phone again. Had not moved. The little dot was in the exact same place. Freaked out and feeling a crack in our lives opening.
4:00pm--- Greg was on his way home after knowing the situation from text messages I sent him. I also GPS'd my phone, Greg's and Caylea's to make sure the GPS was working and it was.
4:11pm--- Called Rockdale police and explained the situation fully - including the two GPS dots. The dispatcher said there was a major accident between a car and a bus and traffic was being rerouted and he was likely in that traffic - my life began to shatter. Somewhere in my explanation she missed "HIS CAR HAS NOT MOVED!" So I repeated myself as I am completely freaking out and trying to tell Greg what I know as we got in his car to drive to Rockdale. I described Ian's car, his name, my name and she put us on hold FOREVER. She came back to say a trooper would call us soon and she could not share any information with us. That is when the tears started.
While we waited I called Heather and asked her to pray for a miracle. Greg called his parents who happened to be with his sister and asked for the same thing. We both then began crying out our own prayers very loudly.
4:26pm--- The call came when we were about 35 minutes from Rockdale and the trooper begged us to pull over and wait for him. We begged him to tell us if Ian had died while we continued to drive. He would not give us any information despite the various ways in which I begged for information - he wanted to explain in person. I asked if we could meet at the hospital, he said "no mam." As we drove to Rockdale in tears grasping the vague, but real notion, our son had died we called the Zientek's to go meet Danny at work in The Woodland's. We called family friends to go meet Caylea at home and Beth was available. We asked them both to have Caylea and Danny call us after we could confirm what we suspected in about 30 minutes.
We then were moving out of cell range until we were fully in Rockdale, but sent one last message to Ian's phone at 4:27pm asking whomever was available to call us, almost, if not exactly, two hours after our son crossed the medium at 100 miles an hour striking an empty tour bus, except for the driver, head on. Ian appeared to be asleep and gave no indication of breaking or bracing for impact. He fell asleep here on earth and woke in the arms of his beloved Savior without seriously injuring anyone else in the time it takes to take a breath.
5:00pm--- After learning the details of the "very, very bad accident" (no one else seriously injured, but the erratic driving did appear as though he was dozing in and out of sleep) we then went to the funeral home. On the way we confirmed with Greg's parents, sister, Heather, and the Zientek's. The drive was only five minutes, but neither of us could get out of the car. I literally COULD NOT see my perfect baby boy in any condition other than alive and just as we had seen him 5 days before. We sat there and sat there - I just remember saying "I can't do this" over and over again. God - how DO I do this?
5:27pm--- Caylea called. She wasn't home yet! I lied about not hearing her, but she had heard Ian was in an accident and was worried and I kept lying to her about coverage and asked if she would call me as soon as she got home. Nine minutes later she called and Beth was there. I said Ian had died in an auto accident in Rockdale and she screamed for what felt like hours and hours with our four month old puppy screaming right along with her. That was the beginning of another life shattered.
We finally decided to go into the funeral home, but the trooper met us outside first to let us know that Ian had been transferred to Austin already - my first PRAISE GOD! The funeral director gave us his wallet - the only other thing besides Ian pulled from the car - and he did not feel we needed to see Ian and sent him with his brother to Austin ahead of us. We were really relieved and felt that we were scared to see his body without life, much less a wrecked body.
As we left for the one hour drive home Danny called at 6:09pm. We didn't know he was alone when we told him and he just said no, it should have been him instead and then hung up on us while he dealt with his feelings for a few minutes - another shattering life. His dad showed up a few minutes later to provide him whatever comfort he could. We talked again about 10 minutes later for a few minutes. Once we arrived home, Danny called me again and said he didn't know what to do. He was wandering around in circles in his apartment and didn't know what to do - I assume he was in shock. I gave him firm instructions to come home and it was then he started his trip to Austin from The Woodlands with a friend driving.
In the hour drive home we made calls to family and a few of Ian's closest friend's parents (we didn't want the kids driving and felt the parents would be there to comfort them). We spoke to so many people and were still making calls until 11:40pm when Danny arrived.
Around 9pm we received the call about eye and tissue donation. We all agreed that Ian would have wanted to continue helping people physically just as he planned to do and was doing actively already in his life.
Several people stopped by, including three boys from the soccer team, Terry & Carol, Tobi & Randy, Teri, and Pat, some of Caylea's friends - Sarah, Xiuzhu and Mozhgon. Most likely many others, the shock was too much for me to remember anything more. We spent time as a family and then headed to bed. Caylea slept with Greg and I - all of us restlessly.
We all knew when we woke in the morning our nightmare would be over. Ian would be home on earth, not home in Heaven.
[Side note - when the body undergoes extreme stress cortisol is released which can cause dehydration. We could not get enough water from the moment we left the house at 4pm until we went to bed. This was just a weird unexpected side effect we had never experienced before.]
Please leave a brief comment - maybe even your initials for each post? Just curious to who the readers are! Love to you each.
