Kids walked the streets on Halloween Night, asking for candy. We asked for something else, lives.
Earlier, we had spent a couple of hours shopping. Snow was falling but not too hard. Although we didn’t like to be out in bad weather we figured it was safe to attend our marriage class. We spent another two and a half hours in class. Afterwards we enjoyed a snack.
“Hmm,” …this is good.” Rick said, “what is it”?“Carrot cake,” I said, “it tastes almost as good as the Amish make.”
Outside I pulled my coat tighter and traipsed in snow that came above my short boots. The biting wind slammed into our faces. “Here,” Rick said, as he wrapped his arms around me, “let me help you.”
He guided me into the truck through the heavy snow.“Oh, I should have warmed it up first,” he said. His breath looked like a misty 
cloud.
Rick started the truck and headed for the expressway. “I’m glad you’re driving,” I said, “I don’t do well driving in bad weather.”
“You just have to take it slow, Babe.”
Our vision was not clear at times, with the heavy snow. Plus the fog faded in and out. Closer to home, as we were about to cross the bridge, we noticed flashing red lights.
Coming upon the bridge we saw that someone had run into the guardrail. A police car had pulled up behind him and a policeman was standing outside his car. Unbeknownst to us, the fog had created a mist on the bridge and caused it to ice over.
When he swerved to the left we hit black ice. Our truck went into a tailspin and whipped us around with a force Rick couldn’t control.
“Please,” I prayed, “don’t let us hit that policeman.”
On our second trip around we just missed hitting the officer. The truck whipped us around again and barely missed the guardrail. My heart was pounding, dreading the impending crash, and worried about the icy water below.
“The road before the bridge was fine but I remembered reading a sign that said, Bridge ices before road.” The truck whipped us around and around, like my speeding thoughts, “Don’t let us hit the guardrail or go over the bridge. Keep the policeman safe. Do we have our wills in order?”
I felt like we were taking a ride on the Tilt-a-Whirl at Cedar Point. When the truck finally came to a halt we were heading down the expressway going the wrong way. A car was heading straight for us. He managed to stop just before we would have crashed. It all happened so fast. Somehow, during our wild ride, the trucks motor had died. Even though Rick never touched it, the key in the ignition was off. He started the truck, and was able to back up, cross lanes and head north on the expressway although we needed to go south.
We both let out a sigh of relief and thanked the Lord for keeping us all safe. A verse came to mind, “Psalm 91:11. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”
“You’re not going to drive home on the expressway, are you?”
“No,” he said, “I’ll get off here as soon as I can.”
He got off at the next exit and we headed home on the back roads.
Walking into our home we both dropped to our knees. We thanked the Lord, 
again, for His protection during our frightening ordeal.
The day we fought for our lives on black ice.
October 31, 2023