[Aliantha]

There was a knock at the door today and there were two women there that I'd never seen around town before. I dubiously made my hellos wondering if I was about to be preached at or have something sold to me, but to my overwhelming surprise, they wanted nothing of the kind.

One of the women was in fact the sister of a car accident victim I had helped several months ago. The other was his sister in law.

I can't remember if I mentioned it here or not, but I was first on the scene of a single vehicle accident just after Christmas. The man had not been wearing a seatbelt, and was thrown from the vehicle and landed more or less on his head about 10 metres (30 feet) from the car. I didn't really do much other than to turn his body into the recovery position to clear his airways (he was choking on his own blood) and just held him there talking gently to him till the ambulance arrived.

Anyway, it really affected me a lot, not only because of the horrific nature of his injuries, but also because of the personal struggles I've been managing with over the last while. I couldn't help but try and keep tabs on his progress, so I bugged the police until they gave me a name so I could call the hospital directly. At first I found he'd been placed in an induced coma and all they'd tell me was that he was critical but stable. I called almost every day for the next few weeks hoping for some positive news. For some reason it was just so very important to me that he didn't die. I don't know why I felt that way. I've never really dealt with an accident vicitm before, so I don't know if that's a normal reaction or not, but in any case, that's the way it was for me.

After almost 3 weeks, I called one day and got put right through to the man. They'd woken him up and he was able to talk and function more or less normally. I couldn't believe it at the time. I was shocked all over again, but we talked for a while and I told him where we lived (turns out we're fairly close neighbours) and what my impressions were of the accident and so on and that was it. I didn't worry him any more after that. I was content to know that he was going to be ok and really didn't think I'd hear from him again.

So you can imagine my surprise when his sister knocked on my door today. Apparently he's been home for a few weeks now and is getting about and has been trying to work up the courage to come and see me himself but each time he's walked past the house he's gotten so emotional that he's felt unable to take the last few steps, so he sent his sister to ask if my family and I would share a meal with his family so that they can thank me for saving his life (for the first time) that night. I found out today that he did actually die on the way to the hospital, but the ambo's were able to revive him.

So, it was an emotional meeting this afternoon, and I imagine there'll be tears when we all sit down and share a meal in a couple of weeks.

It makes me happy to know that he's doing well...and even more so to realize that there are still people out there who will go out of their way to say thankyou.