Within the blink of an eye.

It all started like any other beautiful Fall day. The sun was warm and there was a wonderful cool breeze. I had spent most of the day outside decorating the house and yard for Halloween.

I was tired and dirty, I honestly didn't feel like going inside and cooking dinner so I ordered a pizza instead. Usually they would deliver, but for some reason they couldn't bring it out at that particular time so I agreed to go pick it up.

Both of my sons were babies at the time, and for that reason I had two car seats in the buckled in backseat of my car. My youngest wanted to ride with me to get the pizza. I almost always let them go with me when I had to run an errand. They were well-behaved kids and I enjoyed their company.

I agreed to let him go and was waiting for him to put his shoes on and meet me at the car. He was taking his sweet time and I was getting impatient, I didn't want our pizza to be cold when we picked it up and everybody was hungry. I decided to go on without him.

As I pulled out of the driveway he came running toward me, I stopped for a brief moment but then reluctantly told him to go back inside and wait for me to return. I can't explain it, but I had a feeling that I needed to go by myself that day. I looked through my rearview mirror and watched him running along the fence crying for me to stop. It absolutely broke my heart to see him crying for me, but I continued without stopping.

I was two blocks away from home, and waiting for the red light to turn green. It was around 5:00 pm and the town wasn't substantially busy. There was only a few cars moving around on the street, and a a small number of people scattered around.

I watched as the light turned green and I looked to my left before pulling out. I saw a small red car coming, but it was a good distance away, the light was green (i looked up again) and I pulled out.

I recall seeing that small red car again, it was so close that I could see the man's face clearly and I remember thinking "He's going to hit me!" then I heard that horrible, unforgettable sound of metal clashing...like a bomb had just dropped. I felt something hot hit the side of my face and everything went black.

When I opened my eyes I didn't even know where I was at. I could hear people screaming and glass was still breaking. I began crying and begging "help me!" I felt the glass falling in all around me.

As I pulled out at the green light, that small red car T-boned me. He was driving drunk and had passed out behind the wheel. When he hit me, my car spun around in a complete circle. I was instantly knocked unconscious and my foot was still pressing on the accelerator. I drove straight into a concrete building that housed an internet company.

My car hit the building with such force that the blocks crumbled and fell out onto the sidewalk. Inside of the building people were working and going about their evening routine, the very last thing that they expected was for a car to come crashing straight into the building with them.

After all of that...the object that brought my car to a complete stop was a wooden desk. Earlier, the employees had been cleaning the office and moved the desks around, ordinarily that desk would not have even been there.

When I began gaining consciousness I heard a woman screaming "Where's the baby!" someone was reaching through the broken window shaking me. "Mam, where's your child?" - "At home" I finally answered. One of the car seats had been thrown from the car and was laying in the middle of the road. The very seat that my son would have been sitting in - if I had of allowed him to go with me.

The tires on my car were still spinning, black smoke was filling the inside. I saw someone reach in and pull the keys out of the ignition. Suddenly the huge glass window of the building finished giving way and large shards of leaded glass was falling in all around me. There was one specific shard that was about 5 ft long laying in the back seat, it had barely missed me.

A man that worked for a newspaper just happened to be nearby and he was inconsiderately and tactlessly trying to take photographs of me sitting inside of the car. A stranger that I had never seen before was keeping the curious onlookers at bay.

The stranger stood beside of me, holding my hand through the broken glass. He kept assuring me that I was going to be just fine. When my husband finally made it to the scene, the stanger was gone.

My car was totaled into nothing more than a smashed up piece of metal. The entire front of the internet building was destroyed. Emergency workers had to cut me out of the wreckage, yet...I walked away with little more than a few bruises and minor cuts.

I remember the emergency room doctor, he was shocked that I had no major injuries. He asked - "Do you believe in miracles?" - I replied - "Not so much, until now." Before leaving my side he turned and said - "You are a walking, living testimony, use it!"

If my son had of been sitting in his car seat, he would have surely been killed that day...that thought alone was the worst part of the entire ordeal.

We never did get our pizza that day and for the entire next week I felt like I was living in the twilight zone; nothing felt real. The man who hit me was arrested for drinking and driving and later went on to hit another woman not far away (drinking and driving again).

My life was changed that day, within the blink of an eye. I learned that those little voices that speak to us from the back of our minds are always right and we should never ignore them. That little voice saved my child's life that day.

I also learned that perfect strangers can have more compassion for us than the people that we see each and every day. There are still kind and caring people in this world and sometimes they show up just when we least expect it and need them the most.

I never did learn who that stranger was, he slipped away before anyone could speak to him. I still think about him occasionally and wonder if he will ever know just how much that his humaneness meant to me. I wish that I could have been given the chance to thank him.

I lost a beautiful car and a hot dinner that day, but I gained so much more.

I have since used my experience to speak out against drinking and driving. I was lucky, but so many others are not as fortunate. Innocent lives are lost each and every day to drunk drivers...and some of them (like the one who hit me) will go right back out there and do it again.

During my discourses I also emphasize the importance of wearing seatbelts. I am living proof that wearing a seat belt can save your life.

Did you see the photo at the top of this story? I walked away!

This day certainly changed my life and through my speeches and stories I hope that it changes many, many others as well.

- Please DON'T drink and drive.

-Please always wear your seatbelt - Even if you're only driving right around the corner. (like I was)

-Always listen to that little voice in the back of your mind.

-Have Faith in humanity and share the kindness.