How November 1st Changed My Life

My family has always believed in getting outside and disconnecting for our vacations. From the time I was about five or six years old we were camping in a pop-up camper or a tent. Then as we got older, we ventured out west in an RV that my parents decided to rent. It was honestly one of the coolest trips ever. It left us all wanting more out of life and wanting to spend more time in the mountains and exploring all that our country had to offer. After that, our trip my parents purchased an RV. Rocky was his name. Yes, we named him because quite frankly we spent so much time living in this home away from home that it became part of us. As the next few years went on, we took a couple more trips out west and then even ventured up into Canada with Rocky. We did countless weekend camping trips all over Wisconsin and Michigan as well.

We always liked to camp in the fall. The cool air night around a campfire can be so great. But I will never forget that night of November 1st. Our family was heading to Devil’s Lake State Park for our last camping trip of the season. It was dark outside. My dad was driving Rocky, and my youngest sister sat in the front with him. My other sister was in the back watching a movie. I was up in my bunk sleeping when suddenly there was a loud bang, glass breaking and then complete silence – darkness. I can see that my mom is laying on the floor of our RV. My sister is screaming and there is a hole in the front windshield. My dad is silent. My mom got up and had blood all over her. It is so dark that we do not know where the blood is coming from. You cannot see anything in the RV, and we are in the middle of nowhere with no streetlights. I get my phone out and turn it on and there is half of a deer laying where my mom was.

My Dad suddenly gets out of the RV, he is walking around and has blood all over his face. My sisters, my mom and I then got out and looked to see the other half of the deer was lodged in the side of the RV. Complete shock has set in. A car driving behind us had called 911 as they saw it all happened. The woman was an ER nurse and clearly an angel to us because there was nothing in sight for miles. She lets my sisters, our dog and I in her car while she checks my dad and my mom. We wait for the Fire Department and Ambulance to arrive which feels like forever. We were transported to a local hospital, but they looked at my dad and said he needs to be taken to UW Madison Hospital because they are not equipped to manage a trauma of his magnitude.

My dad spent a couple of weeks at UW Madison hospital while he had full reconstructive facial surgery. Both of his eye sockets and nose had to be repaired. He had so much glass in his eyes that a specialist came in to remove glass pieces one by one. My mom stayed and took care of him and then later learned she had a collapsed lung, but she was more concerned about all of us than herself. We did not want to leave our parents in Madison, but my mom and grandparents felt it would be better for us to go home for a little bit of normalcy. It was hard. I stepped up to help my mom/grandparents a great deal during that time. I also struggled with school through it because it was hard for me to focus knowing my dad was in pain 2 hours away or wondering what the test results would be. The day he came home was the best day. We had so many people reaching out checking on our family and helping us.

While this accident was the scariest thing, I have ever experienced in my life it also taught me how to persevere through a tragedy. It taught me that it is okay to lean on my family and friends instead of internalizing my feelings. I was having a challenging time with depression through it all as I was so worried about my parents. I was learning to drive when this accident happened, so we had many discussions about watching for deer. Making sure to always be alert, do not be a distracted driver! I am grateful that my parents took that time and really focused on it with me rather than just going through the motions of taking me driving to get my hours in. We still get a little freaked if we see a deer coming into the road. How could you not after this?