Thursday, April 9th

This Thursday was similar to many other Thursday's since December. I went to work at 7am because I needed to get off early to take Trevlyn to the doctor for his 4th ultrasound. I have a great boss; as long as my work is done, and I work my allotted hours than he is fine with making my schedule flexible. Trevlyn's appointment was at 2pm. It didn't take long and by 2:30 we were at Home Depot looking for material so that I could make a sign for the Easter Festival at church. After leaving Home Depot we stopped by Hobby Lobby. My to do list was long...Our church Easter Festival was scheduled for the following Saturday, and I still had many last minute things to do. While I was searching for Easter Egg Dye, candy & prizes, Trevlyn was talking on the phone to my brother Corey. That Thursday night our church was starting a revival, and it was going to be the first revival that Trevlyn had ever spoke in. He was very nervous, and Corey was giving him a "hard" time. It was all in good fun. We were laughing and just enjoying the beautiful day. Little did we know that at 3:42 our lives would irrevocably change forever.

We decided to go home after leaving Hobby Lobby instead of going to Party City. Trevlyn really was getting very nervous, and a little sick to his stomach! We were almost home and I received a call from Charlie. I knew that something was wrong as soon as I answered because he was crying, sobbing was more like it. He asked where I was, and then he said go straight home, and pack us some clothes. We are going to Georgia because Mama & Daddy have been in a wreck. I asked him if he knew how bad it was and he explained that his sister had called him from the scene. His parents had just left their house, and less than a mile from their home a vehicle passed a car in their lane hitting them head on. The ambulance had already taken his Mother to the hospital but they were still getting his Dad and brother out. The truck was completely caved in and all three had to be cut out of the truck. At that time no one knew exactly how bad it was, but by the appearance of the wreck his sister didn't think any of them would make it.

An hour had passed by the time we all arrived home, packed a few outfits, and were ready to go. By that time we had received another call letting us know that Lethia, Charlie's mother, had been airlifted to Erlanger in Chattanooga. His Dad & brother were in ICU at the Dalton hospital. At that time we knew that Loyd, Charlie's dad, had 8 fractured ribs on the right side, a fractured vertebrae in his neck, and a cut on his left hand. Joe, Charlie's brother, had a broken wrist, and his right leg was crushed. Lethia was in the worst shape. She had internal bleeding. Her left leg was crushed, her right leg was broken, and her pelvis was broken. Before airlifting her to Erlanger they were having a hard time getting her blood pressure stabilized.

We arrived at Erlanger shortly after Charlie's sister and niece arrived. The nurses explained that Lethia was taken straight into surgery. We waited and waited and waited. More family arrived. Charlie's family is huge, and I think a member of every one of Lethia's siblings was present. Finally a nurse came and took us to the ICU waiting room, but we were turned away because our family was too big. They said only 2 people could be in that waiting room. We were told that visiting hours were from 8:30-9:00, and then they took us to the CCU waiting room because it was bigger. The nurse explained that they would call us when it was time for visitation. We asked when we would have a chance to speak with the doctor and she told us that as soon as the doctor was able to get cleaned up he would be by. At this point it was about 7:30. We thought everything was fine. Of course we knew that she was critical because she was going to ICU, but we thought we were going to be able to see her shortly. We even began to talk about getting Loyd & Joe moved to Erlanger so they could all be in the same hospital. About 8:15 the doctor comes out and ask to speak with the Singleton family. He takes us into the hallway. Then he begins to explain..."When Lethia arrived her blood pressure was very low, and not stable. She had internal bleeding, and many external injuries to her lower extremities. We were able to get her blood pressure stabilized. We found that her internal bleeding was from where her bowel had come loose. We were able to get the bleeding stopped, and the bowel reattached. Then her heart just gave out." The way he was explaining we all thought that everything was okay, but then his last sentence just about stopped our hearts! After about an hour they let us back to see her. She looked like an angel. Lethia's skin is olive toned and her hair is white. Laying on the bed she looked like an old Indian woman. She looked like she was sleeping. We all said our goodbyes and made our way to Dalton.

Upon arriving to the Dalton ICU we found out that Joe was still in surgery. Charlie's other 2 brothers didn't want them to tell their Dad that Lethia had passed until they could tell Joe. Joe didn't get out of surgery until after midnight and by this time it was too late to tell Loyd. They made a decision not to tell Loyd or Joe until the next day. They didn't want Charlie to go back and see Loyd either. They were afraid that he would tell him about Lethia. Thursday was the last day that his Dad was fully conscious.