The Day My Sister Met Her Future Husband by Getting Hit by a Car

Chapter 1: Life Changing Accident

My sister met the man she would eventually call her future husband on the worst possible day, in the most reckless possible way.

She was twenty years old and in college, though strangers often mistook her for much younger. At exactly five feet tall and barely one hundred pounds, she could disappear inside an oversized sweatshirt. She hated when people called her “tiny,” but there was no denying that the world seemed built a size too large for her.

That afternoon, she was crossing the street near campus.

It was an ordinary college day—the kind that should have disappeared into a blur of classes, unfinished assignments, and plans for dinner. Students moved along the sidewalks with backpacks hanging from one shoulder. Cars rolled through the intersection while the pedestrian signal counted down.

My sister stepped into the crosswalk.

Then a car ran the red light.

She saw it only for an instant: a flash of metal coming toward her far too quickly. There was no time to move and no time to understand what was happening.

The car struck her.

The impact lifted her from the pavement and threw her nearly ten feet. She landed in a row of bushes beside the road, surrounded by snapping branches and crushed leaves.

For several seconds, the entire intersection seemed to freeze.