Thanksgiving Literally

Our son Brandon was in a head-on collision the Friday before Thanksgiving at about 4:30 p.m.  The man who hit him was traveling north on the freeway when he crossed the median and hit Brandon's truck that was traveling south.  Brandon never saw him coming.  There were no brake marks at the scene.  It was estimated the impact was a minimum of 140 mph.  The man from Illinois died, but because Brandon was in a heavier 3/4 ton truck, he was injured, but lived.  He was cut deeply on left side of forward down into his eye bridge, his leg took much of the impact, his nose was broken.  There are future surgeries ahead, but he is ALIVE and we are full of thanksgiving. The Eye, Ear, & Nose doc said it was a miracle he did not lose his eye or sever the nerve that goes from ears to sinus.  The first responders said it was the worst wreck they have responded to and had some one actually live.  Brandon's good friend, who is an EMT, was one of the first on scene and helped him, but did not recognize that it was him.  He is recouping at our home and each day he improves remarkably.

This was our "here" year, the Thanksgiving when all come to our house instead of going to their in-laws.  I thought I was coping amazingly well with the trauma of the accident until the day before Thanksgiving told the real story.  I was preparing the batter for the pumpkin pies.  I tasted it before pouring in the shells.  Yuck, was something ever missing.  I added more spice, no diff, but just figured my taster was off.  I was just getting ready to fill the shells, when I realized I had not put in the pumpkin!  We brine our turkey now...so moist and yummy.  We had been brining it for about 12 hours when I realized I had doubled the salt ratio!  At the dinner, I kept repeating "don't salt the turkey...remember don't salt the turkey".  After dinner, I felt two hands on the back of my shoulders.  It was Walt.  He turned me around and told me to go the bedroom to rest, he was going to help clean the kitchen.  We had several Thanksgiving firsts; almost pumpkinless pumpkin pie, double brine turkey, Walt helping clean up after Thanksgiving, and Brandon  with a swollen face, bandaged elbow, hand, and leg.  But we were all full of thanks for sparing our son and bringing us all together to count our blessings.