That'll Do, Suburban, That'll Do

Last Saturday, May 19th, I decided to wake up at 8:30 and go to the gym and then head to our Stake service project. After the gym, on the way to the service project, I was driving on 7800 South. I got to the light at Bangerter, it turned yellow for the car in front of me so I stopped, deciding it wasn’t smart to go. The suburban behind me, however, thought that running the red light was absolutely the best idea. Sadly, since I did not – that sent the suburban barreling into the back of me.


Poor Tim
We got hit hard. I’m ok, and my roommate was in the car with me is ok, but Tim isn’t so ok. So far the damage is estimated at $4000 to fix, and 3 weeks. The whole back door needs to be replaced, the tire cover needs to be replaced and the whole bumper needs to be replaced. Also – there is a bunch of damage underneath Tim that needs to be fixed – I’m not sure the technical name of all the stuff down there, but it needs to be fixed.


During the accident and after, speaking with the police man, I was fine. The lady who hit me was very nice, and she has good insurance. So Alhumdulilah it will cover all the repairs and is paying for a rental car for me. So I’m super lucky in that regard.


After I got home, everything started to process and I started to freak out a little bit. The gravity of the accident, the repairs, and having to deal with all of this on my own. It all just crashed down on me. I don’t understand the insurance process, I don’t speak car language – I have no idea the gravity of the repairs, what the repairs mean, if the car shop is ripping me off or if my car really is fixed, etc.


My Dad is too far away to help at all, and I don’t have family here to help me. I’m single, so I’m pretty much the only one to take care of things. All this hit me, on top of other stuff I’m dealing with and I just lost it.


I started crying, and basically didn’t stop the entire day. I don’t think I’ve ever cried that much or that long. I haven’t actually cried in a while. Like really cried. I think it was just all of these stressors culminating in one really, really bad day. I cried for a good hour and a half solidly. Talked to Samar in there which helped. I had an appointment to get my hair cut with a friend, and so I went to that and my eyes were red and teary, but I managed to not cry during that. Then I went out with Lacie and we saw The Avengers, which was so good!! I managed to not crying during our outing.


The whole day I just needed a hug, someone to be there for me and tell me it was ok, to take the stress off me somehow. I wanted a friend to reach out to me, or something! But I realized that if I wanted comfort, a hug – someone to be there for me, I would have to ask for it. I don’t do that well. I am the suffer in silence type, which is lonely and sad. So for one of the first times in my life (excluding Samar – I’m close enough with her to just call her up bawling) I called someone to give me comfort, give me a hug. The person that came to mind was Sister Bona. The Bonas are close family friends of ours. I’ve known them since I was 11 years old. They now live in South Jordan, like 10 minutes away but I never see them (pathetic, right?). So I called Sister Bona and then just cried all over again, haha. I asked her if I could come over and if she could just give me a hug, since that is what I needed.


So I went over and she hugged me and I cried, and spilled me guts to her, which was hard but really nice all at the same time. Then Brother Bona came home, and he hugged me and that was nice too.


I don’t think I’ve ever cried so much in one day. It was just completely perpetual. Even when I wasn’t crying, I wanted to cry, and my eyes were all misty and just waiting for the go ahead.


But, I made it through. I cried, but I did what I needed to in order to get this done, take care of Tim and myself. I asked for help, which was huge. I reached out to others and let them help me, which was also huge.


I know the Lord had His hand in this, and I needed to learn from it, and I have. While the whole thing has sucked, I’ve learned a lot and grown, which is the point of this whole earth experience anyways.






Love,


Brittney