Pilot ~ Photographer ~ Scuba Diver

May 19, 2014 had already began as a sad day because scheduled at 3:00 pm was the Memorial Service for Rufus Abell. Rufus was very much loved by everyone in our church. He had fought a long hard battle with cancer for a least 5 or more years. Raul and I were planning on attending his services. Half an hour or so before Rufus’ Memorial Kimmy called me to ask if I was coming to the church and that she needed to get some gas money from me. She was already at the church waiting for me. I told her I would soon be going to the church and would meet her there. Before I left to go to the church she pulled up to our Eden Healthy Store where I was working, and came in to see me. She reminded me that she needed some money for gas and was wondering if she could get a few things in the store, too. She told me she had left a note on Dad’s (Raul’s) car asking him to call her so he could give her the gas money, but that she hadn’t heard from him. She wanted me to let him know that I had already given her the gas money so he wouldn’t have to worry about it. We talked about going to Rufus’ Memorial, but Kimmy decided she couldn’t handle it. She wanted to remember Rufus alive. She finished getting her things, and I gave her $30.00 for gas. She came behind the desk where I was sitting and gave me a nice big hug, and told me she loved me. She said she was going to see her boyfriend, Darius, at his house. I asked her a few more times as she was going out the door, to stay with me and go to the Memorial, but she smiled, told me she loved me and left. I remember Kimmy seemed to be so happy and not so stressed as she had been the previous week when she was preparing for all her finals for her classes at Butte College. She had already been to school that morning and turned in her assignments. That day was Monday and that week was her last week of school. Two more semesters at Butte then she would be transferring to Chico State to pursue her degree as a registered dietitian. She wanted to help people make better life style choices so they could be healthy.

When Kimmy left it was a little after 3:00 so I rushed to get to Rufus’ Memorial. I sat in the back of the church on a folding chair, because the church was packed. Raul came in and stood by me. He couldn’t stay for the whole service, but before he left he told me where he was going, but unfortunately I couldn’t understand him. I left too when the service was over, and returned to the store to work. Our son, Josh, and his 2 daughters, Natalie and Emma, were there at the store/office. Josh was busy doing some business work and talking with an employee. The weather was a little strange outside. It was hot, but it also looked like it was going to rain, and  it did a little, but not much. Shortly after the rain I stepped outside and noticed a big huge rainbow which didn’t make a lot a sense, because it hadn’t rained very much at all. I came in the store and sat down at my desk using the computer to check on my emails. My granddaughter, Natalie, wanted to sit on my lap, so we got comfortable as I clicked on an attachment from one of the emails that a friend of mine sent me. The attachment was a You Tube Video showing a young Korean women not much older than Kimmy who was born with severely deformed hands and feet, but she was playing the piano. She was a concert pianist!  As Natalie and I were watching this young amazing women playing the piano I made the comment to Natalie that I couldn’t wait to show that video program to Kimmy, since Kimmy is a concert level pianist. Then I got a call from Maria, who was with our son Daniel, and Sonia, his girlfriend, asking me if I knew where Kimmy was.

Daniel, Sonia, and Maria were at the Oroville Hospital visiting Maria’s nephew, and also a church friend of ours who had just had her baby. They were finished with their visiting, and on their way out the hospital doors to leave. As Daniel was just about to step out the door he noticed Daruis’ Aunt, who worked at the hospital, He could tell she was upset as she asked him if he knew where Kimmy was. He replied that he thought she was home. Then Darius’ Aunt told him that he needed to double check because Darius had been in a car accident, and they weren’t sure if Kimmy was with him or not. Maria called me to ask if I knew where Kimmy was. I told her Kimmy had gone to Darius’ a few hours earlier. She told me not to worry, but that Darius had been in an accident, and they didn’t know if Kimmy was with him or not. Daniel got on the phone and told me to stay at the office and to stay off the phone so I could answer it right away when he called back. He told me not worry, that they would let me know more when they found out more. Meanwhile, Josh was outside talking to his employee, so I told him about Kimmy. He could see I looked worried so he grabbed me and tried to hold me to calm me down. I wanted to jump in my car to go look for my girl, but I waited for Daniel’s call.

It seemed like a long time, but it really wasn’t long before Daniel called me back. He said Kimmy was in the car accident with Darius, and that she had been at the Oroville Hospital Emergency Room to be stabilized, but that now she was in transport by ambulance to Chico Enloe Hospital. There had been warnings of lightening and thunder showers, so there was no possibility of Kimmy being airlifted to Enloe from the scene of the accident. If she could have been airlifted it may have helped, we’ll never know. We wanted to get to the hospital as soon as possible, but we also needed to locate Raul first. Josh, the girls, and I piled in Josh’s car to meet Daniel on the road by the turn-about at the end of Montgomery Street. On the way there Josh agreed to stay behind with his girls to look for Dad. So, I got into Daniel’s car and we stopped at our younger son, Joey’s house, where he and his wife Liz were waiting for us. They jumped into the car also. Daniel is a nurse, so he was very aware of the seriousness of Kimmy’s condition. He mentioned that it didn’t look good for Kimmy. That she was without oxygen to her brain for a while and was possibly brain dead, plus her legs were broken and possibly her arms and back. In my mind I was not wanting to admit that this was happening. I felt like I was in a dream just going through the motions, not able to do anything to change the situation. As we were driving we were all praying silently to ourselves for Kimmy and Darius. By this time it was probably around 7:30, so it was still light outside. As we looked up in the sky we all noticed a rainbow up in the sky which seemed to give us hope.