Sorry to hear about that. 2003 was a pretty awful year for me as well. It started out exactly one year ago today (20th). My girlfriend had off of school because of some light snow and drifting. She decided to go w/ her aunt to Walmart, along w/ her little sister and her aunt's two children ages 3 and 5. I decided to stay at my house. About an hour later I get a frantic phone call from her via her cell phone. "Get up here right now. We were just in an accident!" she screamed. Some young kid (17) was fooling around in the snow-covered road and lost control and hit them head on at about 65 miles per hour w/ his Jeep Cherokee. The kid and his girlfriend were OK (mild concussion), even though he was ejected. Anyway, where the accident was at is in my territory about 6 miles away on Rt. 903 (I'm an EMT w/ Lehighton Amb.). My 'tour was covered up at the time, so I jumped in my Explorer (if you didn't know, Explorer's can do 90) and I was the first on scene w/ in 5-6 minutes. I made sure she was OK, which she was. She was the passenger (belted, air bag deployed). She was stuck in the car because her aunt tried to get off the road but it was too late and she was plowed into the snow bank. I never moved piles of hardened snow so fast in my entire life. Her little sister(in the backseat, belted) was OK as well as her 3 y.o. son (in a car seat) but her 5 year old son was unconscious w/ a SERIOUS head injury. The car seat came loose and he struck the side window HARD. I called for PennStar aeromedical, and we flew him to Lehigh Valley Hospital. He was in a coma for a week before he died on Jan. 27th. Just a horrible start for the year. THEN, her great-grandmother dies in June (she was close to her). On top of that, our neighbors and close friends (a father and son, the son I went to school w/) were professional well drillers. They were drilling next to a flooded yard, their truck sunk in the mud, toppled over and hit a telephone line knocking it down into the water w/ both of them. They were severely electrocuted and died on scene. It just seemed like one thing after another. I was VERY glad to see 2003 go. I really hope you have a better year than me, despite your recent loss.
