Our SUV is rolling over and over and flames are beginning to eat through my passenger seat, searing my hamstrings. The final rollover lands us on my side. My door won’t open. Everything I touch is glass, gravel, and weeds on the shoulder of Highway 83.
The fire ignited under me and is crawling toward my 7-year-old, Ryan, sitting behind me in the backseat.
Our happy family of four are trapped like POW’s. I can smell the skin on my legs burning. Then, I am numb. No, more like frozen. Gradually, my brain begins to thaw.
I open my eyes and every one of us is on fire!
My baby, Tyler, is!
My seven-year-old, Ryan, is!
My husband, Ron, is!
And it feels like we’re all melting. Both children are trapped in their car seats. Can a person be on fire and frozen at the same time?
This is only the beginning of the worst days and years of my life.
dawn
(See you Thursday for part 2)
Dawn Raymond Hirn 
Dawn i remember where i was and what i was doing the day i was told about your car accident..
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It’s still difficult to talk about it, Jorge. So glad our Valley friends were there for us. Thank you.
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It was so difficult to hear. I still remember Ryan coming a few days just before selling his artist drawings in little books that he was raising money for the church.
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Yes. Thank you, Kathee, for this treasured memory. I had forgotten it.
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I love you, Dawn. We were with you all the night before at Katherine and Naji’s and so to see you at the hospital the next day….my heart was broken for your family. My Will and Marley remember Ryan to this day, cause he could be rough with Will and a gentleman with Marley! And a laugh a minute!
Love you all.
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I love you, Lise!
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