Olan - "Bright and Beautiful"
09 06
I have not shared this event more than a handful of times in my life. I could not share it without crying and becoming a mess emotionally. I felt that I needed to share it only with people I felt could comprehend it. As the bible says, why cast your pearls before swine. And this is a most beautiful pearl. I want everyone to experience what I had experienced, but I later realized that different people interpret the same reality differently and this experience could have destroyed them instead of building them up. So this is my story.
Where should I start about the most defining moment of my life. I was a child (only 18 years old) and the summer after my high school graduation I worked for my brother in Macon, MO who owned a little TV retail business. I was driving home with his work van (Aug. 1971) to deliver one to my parents. The last thing I remember was calling my brother because the green was "off" on the TV. He told me how to make the adjustments and I remember making the adjustments and then nothing until I came to in the hospital.
The intervening time is reconstructed from accounts told to me by my brother, mother and one lone witness who came by my brother's shop to talk to him about the accident.
My mother said that I woke up early and ate breakfast before leaving for work. The witness who reported to my brother said that it was misting lightly that morning as he followed me on highway 63 (this was a 2-way road) north of Jacksonville, Missouri. He stated that a pick-up pulling a camper pulled out in front of me. He said I slowed down to round an S-curve before speeding up to pass the camper. He said that in the rain I lost control and swerved to the left a couple of times before finally spinning and tapping the camper with my rear bumper. I then ran off the road and careened into an embankment. Then the vehicle headed back to the highway when the front right bumper hit the ditch and flipped the van end-for-end twice. This threw me out the back doors of the van where I landed on the pavement wrapped in the carpet from the back of the van. The man who was following me did not see me and slammed on his brakes so he wouldn't run over the carpet. When he got out of his vehicle to look he found my head six inches from his front wheel.
They first took me to a hospital in Macon, MO before transferring me to Boone Hospital in Columbia. My mother arrived at the hospital just as they were transferring me to Columbia, MO. She talked to the doctor about my chances. He said I had no chance in their hospital and that I had a 50-50 chance of surviving the trip and if I did survive the trip then I would probably live. She found out that I had a skull fracture to the base of the skull.
I was unconscious for about a week and was considered semi-conscious for another 3 or 4 days. When I regained consciousness I was very angry. I was blind (a reaction to the large dosages of medicine used to stop the swelling of the brain), paralyzed on my right side, and I could not talk clearly due to the paralysis to my tongue. The fighting and screaming took place during my semi-conscious state. These memories came back to me months and in some cases years later. My first memory was of nurses talking to me and asking me my name and where I graduated from high school. They also informed me that I was in an auto accident and what hospital I was in and that I would be okay, now.
I remember talking to my mother and I asked about my brother to see that he was okay because I was afraid he had been killed in the wreck. She informed me that I was alone and no one else was injured.
Time had no meaning to me in this state, only moments of awareness. It was at this time that I had the vision. I was regaining consciousness. I had what I can only describe as an experience. Above my head it seemed as though heaven opened up and I could see Jesus looking down upon me from above. I could see past him into a beautiful place (a place I knew I wanted to go)and I asked him, "I want to go with you, I don't want to stay here where I can hurt, doubt, and have pain. I know now that death is nothing to be afraid of and I don't want to return to life and fear death once again. Please let me pass."
He did not answer me rather just looked down at me with sorrowful eyes and the vision passed and I was back on my hospital bed. Before this moment I was a young man with no future, no ambition, and no desire to be anything. From that moment on I was a man with a mission. To tell others that God exists and that there is something after death and it is beautiful.
During my recovery I read the bible from cover to cover, and thought about what I would do with my second chance here on earth. I finally decided to go to a small bible college to study to be a minister and spread the news that there is something after death and it is filled with peace and love.
I preached from 1977 to 1995 off and on performing mainly in small rural ministries. I have since taken a break from the ministry to re-evaluate my faith and redirect my worldview to become more open to new possibilities. These possibilities are unlimited as is the potential of the human mind. I have moved beyond the constraints of doctrine and dogma into a reality as bright and beautiful as what I witnessed that day so long ago on that hospital bed.
Where should I start about the most defining moment of my life. I was a child (only 18 years old) and the summer after my high school graduation I worked for my brother in Macon, MO who owned a little TV retail business. I was driving home with his work van (Aug. 1971) to deliver one to my parents. The last thing I remember was calling my brother because the green was "off" on the TV. He told me how to make the adjustments and I remember making the adjustments and then nothing until I came to in the hospital.
The intervening time is reconstructed from accounts told to me by my brother, mother and one lone witness who came by my brother's shop to talk to him about the accident.
My mother said that I woke up early and ate breakfast before leaving for work. The witness who reported to my brother said that it was misting lightly that morning as he followed me on highway 63 (this was a 2-way road) north of Jacksonville, Missouri. He stated that a pick-up pulling a camper pulled out in front of me. He said I slowed down to round an S-curve before speeding up to pass the camper. He said that in the rain I lost control and swerved to the left a couple of times before finally spinning and tapping the camper with my rear bumper. I then ran off the road and careened into an embankment. Then the vehicle headed back to the highway when the front right bumper hit the ditch and flipped the van end-for-end twice. This threw me out the back doors of the van where I landed on the pavement wrapped in the carpet from the back of the van. The man who was following me did not see me and slammed on his brakes so he wouldn't run over the carpet. When he got out of his vehicle to look he found my head six inches from his front wheel.
They first took me to a hospital in Macon, MO before transferring me to Boone Hospital in Columbia. My mother arrived at the hospital just as they were transferring me to Columbia, MO. She talked to the doctor about my chances. He said I had no chance in their hospital and that I had a 50-50 chance of surviving the trip and if I did survive the trip then I would probably live. She found out that I had a skull fracture to the base of the skull.
I was unconscious for about a week and was considered semi-conscious for another 3 or 4 days. When I regained consciousness I was very angry. I was blind (a reaction to the large dosages of medicine used to stop the swelling of the brain), paralyzed on my right side, and I could not talk clearly due to the paralysis to my tongue. The fighting and screaming took place during my semi-conscious state. These memories came back to me months and in some cases years later. My first memory was of nurses talking to me and asking me my name and where I graduated from high school. They also informed me that I was in an auto accident and what hospital I was in and that I would be okay, now.
I remember talking to my mother and I asked about my brother to see that he was okay because I was afraid he had been killed in the wreck. She informed me that I was alone and no one else was injured.
Time had no meaning to me in this state, only moments of awareness. It was at this time that I had the vision. I was regaining consciousness. I had what I can only describe as an experience. Above my head it seemed as though heaven opened up and I could see Jesus looking down upon me from above. I could see past him into a beautiful place (a place I knew I wanted to go)and I asked him, "I want to go with you, I don't want to stay here where I can hurt, doubt, and have pain. I know now that death is nothing to be afraid of and I don't want to return to life and fear death once again. Please let me pass."
He did not answer me rather just looked down at me with sorrowful eyes and the vision passed and I was back on my hospital bed. Before this moment I was a young man with no future, no ambition, and no desire to be anything. From that moment on I was a man with a mission. To tell others that God exists and that there is something after death and it is beautiful.
During my recovery I read the bible from cover to cover, and thought about what I would do with my second chance here on earth. I finally decided to go to a small bible college to study to be a minister and spread the news that there is something after death and it is filled with peace and love.
I preached from 1977 to 1995 off and on performing mainly in small rural ministries. I have since taken a break from the ministry to re-evaluate my faith and redirect my worldview to become more open to new possibilities. These possibilities are unlimited as is the potential of the human mind. I have moved beyond the constraints of doctrine and dogma into a reality as bright and beautiful as what I witnessed that day so long ago on that hospital bed.
