It was a beautiful day in Auguest of 2002, I was in my 30 ft camper watching a thunder storm beat down on the campground. A beautiful site! Until... Lightening hit a 40 ft high tree (thicker than a human can wrap there arms around). The sound was an explotion as I heard the strike, the tree begin to fall and hit the ground a foot from the camper (crushing the electrical pole and putting a big fracture in a 6 in thick piece of slate.)

Just when I realized that I was still alive, my ears ringing, I heard another strike hit behind the camper.

It hit the top of a tree and as I heard it fall, I thought this is going to hurt. I started to run out of the camper but didn't even get my feet on the floor. As the limbs crashed onto the camper roof, the inside exploded, the glass windows blew out, the roof came down about 2 inched, the pop up part slamed shut loudly, a limb speared through the ceiling (thank God no one was sitting there because it would have went through their head) and limbs where coming into the broken windows.

As the wind and rain whipped through the camper I had no idea what to do. Before I could move, my nose, ears and forehead where cushing blood. I paniced rushed for tissue, I forgot the pop up (makes camper big enough to stand up) was down and stood up, striking the top of my head on the top of the camper . It hurt but I knew I had to get to out of camper.

At that point I heard over the thunder and lightening, "Come over here". They had seen the second tree fall and thought I was dead.

Glass fragments were everywhere that was exposed. I wear glasses, but fragments bounced off the inside of the glasses into my eyes. It was freaky to see very tiny pieces of glass come out as my eyes teared. The tiny peices of glass embedded in my skin came out on it's own after a few days.

I felt like I was floating, like I was dead. 4 days after the "incident" I passed out at work. That's where the memory gets foggy. After much testing and dr's visits: I have a closed head injury; right frontal lobe damage.

I feel a part of me did die that day in August. Life has not and never will be as it was before the "God smack".

However, I realize I am lucky; if the first tree had hit the camper I'd be dead. I've been given a second chance.

I'm learning to live with my new "quirks" and am finding "stragies" to make it through the day.

This site has been my lifeline so many times, it's great to have a place that I'm understood.