To end 2013 on a high note, the BHHA would like to acknowledge the helping hand recently provided by Colony Store manager Marie Watson and her family. The following editorial published in the Kewanee Star Courier describes this good deed:
FAMILY RESCUES ACCIDENT VICTIM
To the editor:
At 6:30 pm last Sunday, I was traveling on the two-lane headed back from Peoria after delivering homemade sweet potato pies (something done every year) and visiting with family.
Traveling steady with a stream of cars making it past West Jersey headed toward Kewanee. I felt safe since I was almost home.
It was then that I drove over a snowdrift on the road that apparently froze as day turned to night. As my car violently slid side to side, I held the steering wheel turning into the slide (as we’re told to do) while uncontrollably weaving in and out of both lanes of traffic. My life flashed in front of me.
Thankfully, there wasn’t any oncoming traffic at the time. As my car began its all-out spin, I thought to myself, “So this is the chaos one experiences before dying in a car accident.”
After what seemed like an eternity of being tossed and turned, my car finally came to a stop in the ditch on the other side of the road pointing in the opposite direction from which I’d been traveling.
With my eyes wide open, my first thought was, “not dead”. As a few cars kept traveling, I realized I was alone on a stretch of road with no reception and the second wave of terror hit.
As desperation began setting, a family of four (which I like to refer to as my Christmas angels) that was headed back from Springfield stopped to help me.
The lead angel (mother and wife of the family), hurriedly approached me yelling with the nourishing sound of concern, “Honey, are you all right?!” It was then that I knew I was in good hands. She helped me up the snow bank, placed me into the front seat of their vehicle and before climbing into the backseat herself with her children, went back to my car, turned it off and locked it up, all the while risking their lives as their vehicle idled in the oncoming traffic lane.
As the man of the family navigated us smoothly and safely into town, in which the family resides as well, I managed to tell this family about myself.
The father and husband of this family mentioned he is a fan of sweet potato pie and an instructor at Black Hawk College-East Campus.
To Mr. and Mrs. Kirk Watson and their precious cargo (kids), words will never express how much your act of kindness has touched my life. Mr. Watson, sweet potato pies are coming your way.
Merry Christmas to everyone.
Latoya Johnson,
Kewanee
Thank you Watson family for being such good neighbors. May everyone have a Happy and Safe New Year!
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