Angels in Action

True story.

Thursday, on my way home from the gym, all slimy and sweaty and jamming to my Sirius Radio 70's station, I was the first car stopped in the turn lane on Tampa Road, waiting to go south on Belcher Road. All the lights had just turned red. Then the world turned into slow motion.

From my right I saw a large gold car blow through the red light and slam into a smaller white car. I think I sat in shock for a couple of seconds before my brain kicked into gear and told me to pick up my phone and call 911. The next forty minutes were nothing short of amazing.

As I was speaking with the emergency operator, letting her know it was two elderly women involved, both of whom were moving, I watched as people appeared from everywhere. Two young men helped the very dazed and confused gold car driver from stumbling around the middle of the intersection. They tried to walk with her to the corner but she almost collapsed. Without hesitation, the two men scooped her up in their arms and carried her the rest of the way. Another set of folks entered from somewhere else and assisted the other driver out of her car and to the same corner of safety. Still more folks, coming from seemingly thin air, went back to those smoldering cars and retrieved purses and phones and other important items requested.

After I parked my car safely, I got back to the corner to find several females trying to tend to the two accident victims. The gold car driver seemed to be in worse shape and was laying in the grass. She was very disoriented and as I watched these women tend to her, the men who had brought her over and the others who retrieved items seemed to dissipate back into thin air, where they came from.

The fire department arrived, as well as paramedics, and the few initial helping bystanders silently vanished as these uniformed heroes took to a carefully choreographed dance of medical attention, traffic detail, and accident clean-up. I spent a large amount of time with the woman from the white car. She seemed OK at first, but shortly after her husband showed up, she kind of broke down and looked to need some serious attention. I then had to turn my attention to the husband who was progressively getting more and more concerned.

After I gave my statement to the State Trooper, and had given my best thoughts and prayers to the husband of the white car victim, I walked back to my car shaking. There was no blood and guts. There was no super-traumatic scene to behold. What I had witnessed, instead, was Angels in Action. They came from everywhere and each played a vital little role and then faded out of sight. It was very surreal and uplifting at the same time.

Sure hope those two ladies are OK. They were tended to by Angels.