Deeply saddening news

Saturday evening, about 6 pm, Mama got a call from Chase. Mama and I happened to be sitting at the dining room table together when the call came in. A call from our son in not something that happens on a routine basis. It was instantly clear that something unusual, something bad was in the works. Chase, through a sobbing voice was burdened with the message for us that Rebekah and Bridgette had died in an automobile accident a few hours past. After the horror of the news sunk in, he told us a bit of the background as to why it fell to him to break the news to us. He gave us the contact information for the person who had called him, and we immediately called her to see what additional information we could gather to try and process the horrific news.

The background of the incident was this. The accident that took Rebekah and Bridgett’s lives happened about 2:30 pm Saturday the 10^th. Rebekah and Bridgette were enroute to a mother/daughter modeling event. A special time to celebrate Bridgette’s coming birthday. They were being driven to the event by a friend. As they traveled out of town, a vehicle traveling in the opposing traffic crossed the median and entered their lane of traffic. The driver in Becky’s vehicle swerved to attempt to avoid the head on collision and struck a car traveling beside her in the right lane. That car ran off the highway, but it left the car Becky and Bridgette were in still in the path of the oncoming vehicle. That vehicle struck them from the front bringing both vehicles to a horrific stop across both lanes of the interstate. A car traveling in the lanes with the car Becky and Bridgette were in then struck them from behind. All the vehicles were traveling at 70 mph or better. Rebekah, Bridgette, the driver of their car and a passenger in the car that struck them from the front all died in the crash.

Local firefighters and most of the first responders in that area are volunteer. They are a very tightknit group of individuals and families. The firefighters that were first on the scene immediately recognized the driver of the car Becky and Bridgette were in, so they contacted the fire chief in the district where Mike, Becky’s husband, Bridgette’s father, serves as a volunteer. Scott, the fire chief, found Mike and broke the news to him. Mike was so overwhelmed that he was not able to think of anyone in Becky’s family that could be contacted except Chase. Somehow, they tracked down a number for Chase, made certain he was Becky’s brother and told him what had happened. Chase immediately called us. The driver of the vehicle Becky and Bridgette were in was the wife of a volunteer in the same area where Mike serves. (The volunteer fire department folks have been marvelous to Mike and to us. Much to be commended for their concern and willingness to help Mike through this.)

We had little information at first, but we began to call our children to let them know what we knew at the time. The events of the accident became known to us over the remainder of the evening and into the day yesterday, Sunday the 11^th. Through Brittany we were able to get hold of the police report and through Maggie we were able to track down a newspaper article written about the accident. It was a big deal because the accident left four dead, one care flighted to the hospital and shut down traffic on the interstate for four hours. It was a big deal to us for other reasons, but I can assure you, the next time I am caught in traffic because of an accident, I will view the delay differently.

As of today, we have still not talked to Mike directly. Scott is watching over him and making all the necessary arrangements for the care of Rebekah and Bridgette’s bodies. As we spoke to Scott yesterday afternoon, he was fairly certain that we will be having a “Celebration of Life” service on the day and hour of our choosing. Nate, Cori and the kids are flying in from Honduras tomorrow, so we are opting for that service to be held sometime Thursday evening in the Hot Springs, AR area. That timeframe will allow most of those locally that want to attend to make the vigil as well as allow us to travel the six hours from home to the service with only one night on the road.

Bridgette’s birthday would have been yesterday. She would have been seven years old. Becky’s birthday would have been this month as well, on the twenty-first. She would have been thirty-five years old. Though sadden by the news, we still have a glorious promise that we will see them again. That is our blessed hope in the Lord. Don’t get me wrong. We are deeply grieved, but we are also comforted that the joys of Heaven are theirs for eternity because of their faith in the Lord. Hopefully, we can comfort Mike even as we sorrow over the sudden, unexpected loss of our daughter Rebekah and our granddaughter Bridgette.

We can certainly comfort one another.