Worst Car Crash in NASCAR 

By Trisha Payless

I saw the crowd roar in joy. I smile getting into my car. I look at my opponent. I heard a gunshot and the race was off. I was three laps in and I saw two cars on my side. I see them getting closer. 

BOOM!

I was in the air. I saw the sky and then the ground over and over. The ground upside down. People yelling.

“MICK! MICK! SOMEBODY  HELP.” Ben yelled. Ben was my brother.

I heard the ambulance there, but I couldn’t see it. The race was stopped. They tried and tried to get me out, but they noticed I had a broken neck, arm, and leg. They did the Jaws of Life on the car to get me out. It took 40 – 50 seconds to get me out. They put a neck brace on my neck and put me on a bodyboard. They put me in the ambulance and took me to the hospital with my brother. Twenty minutes later my brother and I made it to the hospital. 

They performed emergency surgeries. Six hours after I got done with my surgery, I was in a hospital bed with my wife by my side and my daughter on my other side.  Ben was standing at the end of my bed. 

“Dad?” said Angel. She is his daughter.

“Yeah”

“ Are you going to be healed for my wedding?”

“ I don’t know but I hope I am.”

The next day I had to go do another surgery. I went in and my wife and Angel stayed in the room.  My wife was praying when I went in. Five hours later I got out and I was in my room asleep. My wife was holding my hand. Angel had her head on my shoulder. 

Two weeks later I got out of the hospital. My wife was driving Angel and me home from the hospital. When we got home the TV was on and President Trump was speaking. I sat on the couch with my wife. It got later and my wife started to make dinner. I was sitting on the couch watching her cook.

 “What are you making?” said Mick.

“Chicken tacos.”

“Okay.”

After dinner, my wife and I are sitting in bed. My wife is setting up an appointment for me. I fell asleep with her. The next day my neighbors were over and their little girl was coloring my cast on my arm. I smiled down at her remembering my daughter when she was little. I knew at that moment I was going to walk my daughter down the aisle.

Six weeks later I was in physical therapy and I was doing well. I was working really hard to get healed for my daughter’s wedding.  I worked every day. My arm was healed. I was still having trouble walking. I kept pushing through and never gave up. I had too much that I still wanted to do in my career, and I knew my daughter wanted me to keep going. 

  After my therapy session, I was sitting in the car waiting for my wife. When she got in the car we went to Taco Bell to get lunch. We got our food and went home. When we got home, she helped me in my wheelchair to the house. After I finished my food. I moved to the living room and sat on the couch turning on the TV.  My wife sat down with me. I put my arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to me. I was thankful to have her.

Three weeks before my daughter’s wedding, my wife went dress shopping today and I stayed at home with Ben and my daughter’s fiance. We were watching football. Five hours laters the girls came back from dress shopping.  I pulled my daughter into the other room.

“Princess I don’t think I can walk at your wedding I am so sorry”

  “It is okay Dad, I understand.” she said, looking at the ground.

The wedding day came, and everyone was getting ready. My wife was by my side. I was shaking in my wheelchair. Everyone started to fill the seats. I sat there listening to the birds sing thinking how beautiful this day was. I waited at the end of the aisle. As my daughter approached, she knelt down to me.  

“Do you want Uncle Ben to push you?”  she whispered.

I grabbed the arms of the wheelchair and slowly stood up.

“No I got it” I looked at her and smiled. “Let’s go,” I said softly. 

 With tears streaming down both of our faces, I walked my daughter down the aisle.