One night changed her life forever. It was roughly a year ago, the accident. Around mid-December when my friends and I decided to ride up to the drive in, DeMarco’s to see the newest chick flick “Can’t Buy Me Love.” It was Meghan, Savannah, Lily, and I. I had just turned 18, and I was the only one who had a car. It was a hand-me-down, but still pretty decent. So, of course I was made designated driver, although I didn’t really mind. You’d be surprised at how excited I was to drive…

Sisters

      It was the year of 1982, we were in our senior year at Ventnor City High School. That day, Wednesday, after school, we all met up at my house to get ready for our night out.

      We decided to go to the drive-in because ewe were only 5 days away from getting out of high school, forever, and I guess we just wanted to let loose a little bit. If you would’ve told me how the day unraveled from there, I would’ve never believed you.

If I’m being honest I have a lot of “friends,” but I’d only call three girls my “sisters.” They are the type of people who will make sure that your ok if you weren’t in school that day, or if your ever having a rough day you, you don’t have to say anything because they know to just be there for you. 

Meghan was a tall and skinny girl, just turned 18 about 6 months ago. She had an orange streak in her hair, with the majority of her head bleached electric white, since that was “in,” and neutral colors were “out.” Meghan was my best friends, my favorite out of all of my friends, she could tend to be a little moody at times, but I wouldn’t change her for the world.

Savannah on the other hand was the sweetest girl you ever meet. I’ll have to admit though she was a little on the stocky side, and was quite short. Poor Sav was always conscious about that, but she had amazing features that could make you forget that you were a whole head taller than her.
Savannah was the youngest out of us all, 17, but she always defended herself by exclaiming, “Im 17 going on 18, atleast I have more time to be a kid, before I start getting taxes and my childhood is ripped from me.” She was quite the, date i say, outspoken one.

Lily and I have been friends since fishnet tights have been a thing, and those things have been around since when? Exactly. No one knows...

A couple of summers ago, things were getting a little rough with some of her friends so she became more forgiving. Not that she wasn’t forgiving before, but she became less stubborn when it came to giving people that second chance,  maybe it was even for the better. I guess the lesson learned is forgive and forgive, right?

Hit the Road

We were going with big, spunky curls for the night. I believe we also agreed on purple eyeshadow. Oh.. Everything black was what we were wearing. Shoes, jackets, leather pants, everything. I guess you could call it a blackout.

We finally were ready, and five minutes behind schedule, but realistically there was nothing abnormal about that for us. So, we knew it was time to hit the road. We took my car, the hand me down, and headed towards the car. 

It was going to be a long ride from Ventnor to DeMarco’s. But, it was the best drive-in, with the newest  and hottest movies, so it was worth it. As soon as we stepped out the house, Lily called “SHOTGUN,” so Meghan and Savannah were stuck in the back.

I turned on the stereo, and “Never Going to Give You Up,” blared from the speakers. Meghan and Lily started doing some weird dance. Looked like a more like they were getting attacked by rabid misquotes, but I didn’t say anything.

Seizure

 I pushed in the key to the ignition, the car kind of sputtered and stalled a little, but after the second attempt the engine finally roared. I pulled out the drive way, and we were smooth sailing for about 30 minutes, so at this point were about half way along our ride. Since it was around 6pm and dark, traffic was light.

We were all having fun, and I was happy to see my friends enjoying themselves. What could go wrong? That’s a question I would’ve never thought would have a horrible answer on such a great night.

 All the sudden the dancing stopped, i just assumed that they finally got tired and decided to relax a little, but i was terribly wrong. 

“Meghan? Meghan?” Savannah said shaking her.

I turned around and said “Maybe she fell asleep? Here ill pull over, don’t want her to mess up her hair!!” I laughed.

It was not until I turned around and saw her shaking, her eyes rolling back into her head, her mouth foaming, that I realized her problem was more serious than messing up her hair.

There was not a second to waste, every moment was crucial. Then the worst that could happen, happened in this moment, no reception.

Nothing to call an ambulance. Nothing to call for any sort of help. I felt a horrible sinking feeling, like a weight was pulling my heart down. It was terrible, just sitting there watching being her being helpless. 

I just went blank, then as if a rubber band snapped in my brain, I jumped back into the driver’s seat and starting driving to the closest place, Savannah house.

“Where are we going?’’

I did not respond. I was like a drone in that moment, I couldn’t stop, and any warning signs that were going in my head were stored away.

Then as if to turn off the noise that my friends were creating I said, “Don’t worry, I got this.”

Within 10 minutes I pulled up to Savannahs house. This was the only place close enough to get Meghan medical attention, this was because her dad was an EMT.

I opened the front door to her house frantically and yelled “HELP, WE NEED HELP.”

    Instantly Savannahs dad came rushing down the stairs, and asked us what was wrong.

     “It’s Meghan, I think she’s having a seizure.”

      Next thing I know he’s pulling her out the car, Lily is holding her feet, Savannahs dad holding her upper body.

He did all he could to help Meghan to relax.

     Next thing I remember we were riding in the back of an ambulance, Lily crying, Savannahs dad telling Meghan’s helpless body “Everything will be okay.”

     Why do adults always say that? That everything will be ok, when it very well will not. Do they just grow to be oblivious to the fact that when something goes wrong, it is not always going to be all just perfectly fine.

Recovery

    It was 12 days that Meghan was in the hospital. It was not easy, for any of us, but I can tell that Meghan took what happened to her pretty hard. You could just here her asking herself “Why?”

    It turned out that Meghan actually had one of the worst seizures you could have, a grand mal. It wasn’t because she wasn’t healthy, or that she did something wrong.

   The doctor actually could not determine why this just happened out the blue, and especially to a girl like her with perfect vitals.

     Meghan spent the remainder of her 12 days in the hospital mainly just for physical therapy, you know to get her back to where she was. To where she wanted to be, her normal self.

    Meghan and the doctors both agreed that her recovery was a little easier with us there night and day, I was the only in that stayed overnight at the hospital. Of course I went home for a couple hours a day to shower and get fresh clothes. It never crossed Lily, Savannahs, or my own mind that we would ever leave Meghan’s side through it all. And we didn’t.

    I got one thing out of that terrible night, and the tough 12 days that followed after it like dark shadow; that you can never, even though the hardest, leave the people that mean the most to you.