A True Purpose
My sister's death made national headlines. For me, the story didn't end there.
I sat across the desk from the head of the university’s physical-therapy program.
“You received an education degree six years ago but never worked as a teacher,” she said, peering at my résumé. “You waitressed at Olive Garden, then quit last spring. Help me understand why you want to learn to be a physical therapist.”
I could tell she thought I was just another young person with no direction. A year ago she might have been right.
I was happily living at my parents’ home in Michigan, taking life as it came (or not). But that was before the accident. I took a deep breath. “Let me tell you,” I said, “how I got here.”
Five months earlier, in April 2006, my little sister, Laura, was in a horrible crash. A senior at Taylor University in Indiana, she was riding in a van with eight other students and staff, returning from working at a college banquet.
A semi crossed the interstate median and crushed the van. Five passengers died. Rescue workers found Laura’s body 50 feet away, her purse nearby. Her injuries were so severe and disfiguring that the proximity of her purse was the only way paramedics could put two and two together and identify her.
My parents and I rushed to the hospital in Indiana, three hours away, where Laura lay in a coma. We lived by her side, praying for a miracle. My two younger brothers, Mark and Kenny, joined us as often as they could take time off from work.
That first night in the ICU she looked like a mummy, her head wrapped in bandages, her sparkling blue eyes hidden behind bruised and swollen eyelids. About all that was recognizable were the tufts of blonde hair sticking up through the bandages.
My sister—the outdoorsy athletic girl, the one I’d taught to play guitar—seemed far away, beyond my reach, but not beyond God’s.
In a couple of weeks they took off some of the bandages. A few days later she opened one eye and slowly emerged from the coma. It was incredible—a front-row seat to God’s healing power!
The transformation was so amazing that some days it seemed like she was a different person.
Her recovery filled me with awe. God must have something pretty important planned for her—big enough to preempt death. I wondered if I was part of this plan too.
Photo Gallery: The Van Ryn Family
Lisa, with her siblings (clockwise), Laura, Mark and Kenny
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Comments
Dear Lisa, I don't know if
Dear Lisa,
I don't know if this will get to you but...I wanted to share my story with you. It is not so much my story as it is the story of Seth; my nephew Seth Rowland. Friday at work I received an email from Seth. I do my best to stay as close to him as I can. In his email he told me he would be away for awhile because of an operation he was needed to have.
This is my/Seths' story:
In the early afternoon of September 9th 2006, near "Caledonia", Ohio, Seth, along with two half sisters and a friend were involved in an unspeakable tragedy when he lost control of the pick-up he was driving. Seth was trying to avoid another vehicle that had crossed into his side of the road. The pick-up hit a tree and quickly became engulfed in flames. Half sister Jade and her friend escaped the flames; Seth had to be pulled from the vehicle. Unfortunately half-sister Sarah did not make it out.
Seth received burns over 80% of his body. When I was finally able to see him at the OSU burn unit I could tell by the trauma nurses eyes that my worst fears were not unfounded. Their eyes could not hide what their positive uplifting spirits tired to mask. Those eyes screamed out in anguish; at that moment I wanted him to be allowed to die. Yet Seth, God, the forces of the living, all chose...life. And after 6 months of an induced coma, countless skin graphs and loss of the lower portion of his right leg and the tips of many of his fingers, Seth slowing returned to the world he once knew.
I'm not certain why I wanted to share this with you...perhaps because of the effect these events had on my life. I too had been thinking of career in therapy. When aiding in my mother’s transition from this life to the life of sprit after her passing from colon cancer I began to think about a career change. I was always a little ashamed of myself for giving up on Seth so early on. When it became evident that he had chosen to live, I started to see everything in a different light. No more could there be any excuses for anything not working out, no more unfulfilled goals, no more I can't or I'm not smart enough, not good enough. No more excuses. His experience taught me that it was time to take seriously the calling I felt to begin to prepare myself to enter an Occupational Therapy program. Just last week I sent my application in to the master’s program at VCU in Richmond, VA.
Thank you Lisa for sharing your story; it has encouraged me to keep working toward my goal. One day I hope to tell a story as well. It will be Seth’s story though. He and now you continue to be the “carrots on my stick of life”.
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