THE OVERTURF FAMILY'S
EASTER DAY CAR WRECK
I want to begin with a short excerpt from my view of the family history and finish up with another excerpt. The two eventually tie together and show how God has worked in my family’s life. I probably ought to mention that I came from a family of 10. Two of our siblings (We call them brother and sister) are really our cousins (one now deceased). Mom and Dad took them in and raised them when their mother committed suicide and their father abandoned them. All eight of us kids were only 11 years apart in age. Those already born were ages 6 and 5 and the twins were 2 when our two cousins, 5 and 6 (?), came to live with us. We lived in a three-room house. The family would grow by two more. Naturally we made several moves seeking a big enough home.
We “big” kids would take walking trips around the town of West Frankfort where we were living. We were very young and Mom was sometimes unaware of the places we were touring. And yet it was one of those trips that helped shape my life. One day the “big kids,” or the oldest siblings, started walking down railroad tracks that run through the town of West Frankfort, IL. There were few houses on either side of the tracks at that time. From time to time we would see piles of trash beside the tracks where people would dump trash. We would go through it to see if we could find anything interesting. I’ve always loved books, so I latched onto one that I found in one of the heaps. It happened to be a book with testimonies of remarkable things that had happened to Christians, things that could only be explained as God’s intervention into their lives. There was story after story and they were quite moving. I knew then that’s what I wanted for my life – God watching over me and my family. Ironically, or perhaps by God’s design, I would one day write this, my own testimony of how God intervened in our lives.
The Car Wreck
The memory that supersedes all others during our growing-up years happened on Easter Day, April 2nd, 1961. We hadn't lived in Mt. Vernon very long. We had already attended church, ate our Easter dinner, then headed for our great-grandmother’s funeral in Benton still in our Easter clothes. All 10 of us were in the car. Casey was 2 and Jamie was 4. The two oldest, Linda and Sharon (Rosser), were in 8th grade, Butch/Billy (Rosser) and I were in the 7th and the twins, Carolyn and Marilyn, were in the 4th grade. As we were traveling Rt. 37 south and approaching Benton, my sister, Linda, was showing me a school picture of a schoolmate, Vernie Wittenbrink, and then BAM!! The next thing I knew the car was rolling and rolling, us with it.
Three teenage girls had been joyriding and passed on a combination hill and curve and came right toward us. Dad swerved and thought they would miss us, but they didn’t. They hit his side. The passenger side door in the front flew open during one of the rolls, probably the first. Mom and Casey, who had been sitting in Mom's lap, flew out of the car. I personally believe an angel carried them safely away from the car. What usually happens in rollover accidents is that the door opens, the passenger falls out and the car lands on them. It could only be by the grace of God that it didn’t land on Mom and Casey. Marilyn and Jamie were also in the front seat but stayed in the car while it rolled. I guess Dad hung onto the steering wheel. The rest of us were packed in the back seat like sardines, which meant we could hardly move around which made our injuries minimal. Cars had no seat belts or safety glass back then.
I remember my first concern after the accident was, of all things, the car radio. It was still playing upbeat music from the crashed car while we were all traumatized. I was so angry with that radio. I thought it had a lot of nerve. I couldn’t wait to turn it off. Then someone came running to me and said that Mom was hurt bad and might be dead. We all survived the crash, but Mom didn’t fare as well as the rest of us. She landed on her back, specifically her shoulders, still holding Casey, who was fine. The wind was knocked out of her and she appeared to be dead. When we got to her, her eyes had rolled back into her head. Within a few minutes she regained consciousness and said she couldn't breathe. Mom’s shoulders were fractured and she had cracked ribs. We were all in a state of shock, trying to make sense out of it all, even wondering if it was really happening.
The ambulance took Mom to the hospital and Dad rode with her. The state troopers probably took the rest of us. I was in too much shock to remember for sure.
It just so happened that Mom’s sister, Virginia, and her family were on their way to Mt. Vernon to visit us, not realizing we were going to a funeral. They passed the accident after we had gone to the hospital and just knew when they saw the car that most of us would be dead. They went to the Benton Hospital where Mom was taken. Grandpa Overturf, ironically, was making a similar journey to our house and he too ended up in the waiting room at the hospital. Granny and a few other relatives and friends soon showed up. Granny didn’t get to attend her own mother’s funeral and neither did other relatives who came from there.
Most of our backs were wrenched in the wreck. Butch had a broken nose and Dad had a limp in his left leg for the first day or two. Mom was in the hospital for several days.
God intervened several times that day, one time being that the doctor who repaired Mom’s shoulders knew exactly what to do because his wife had suffered similar injuries in a car accident and he had studied the issue. The doctor set Mom's shoulders without using pins and she had full use of her arms again, including playing the piano, but not for the six weeks that both arms were in a cast.
The state troopers who investigated the accident happened to be friends of Mom and Dad’s because they were co-workers with our then uncle, Andy Muzzarelli, also a state trooper. One of them said that being packed in the car like sardines was one thing that saved us. The other thing that saved us was that we were riding in an old, heavy Packard car. That’s all we could afford in the age of the new lightweight cars, but being poor and being many is what saved our lives. If our cousins, Sharon and Butch/Bill Rosser, hadn’t come to live with us when they were little, there wouldn’t have been as many of us and the outcome might have been different. God really does work all things to the good for those who love Him.
On a humorous note, four-year-old Jamie Jo stayed with family friends, Shirley and Walt Denton, the first night after the wreck. While Jamie was there, the Dentons noticed a red streak running down her leg from one sore to another. They immediately grabbed her up and rushed her to the emergency room in Benton. The doctors and nurses gathered around her leg trying to figure out what they were looking at, with the first thought being blood poisoning. Then one doctor called for a wash cloth with some soap on it. The red streak washed right off. The Denton's little son, Scottie, had drawn the red streak on her leg with a crayon. He connected the dots.
There were so many “ironies” that day, but I now know it was God doing His thing. He didn’t stop the car wreck from happening, but He and His angels were involved in so many aspects and helped us get through it. Mom wanted nothing more than to raise her eight kids and God refused to let the devil take that opportunity away. If the devil had his way, our spiritual lives would have turned out altogether different because Mom was our greatest spiritual influence.
God didn’t choose to save just half of us or 7 out of 10, or even 9 out of 10. He chose to save all of us. He obviously has a plan for each of us and that plan extends into the future through our descendants. As it is, Jamie’s son, Andrew Pearson, married a preacher’s daughter, has been one of the deans at the Christian camp, and is greatly involved in a ministry. Her other son, Adam, is a Licensed Counselor that includes Christian counseling. My son, John Wall, Jr., serves as an elder at Nashville Christian Church and his wife, Peggy, is the Manager of a Christian pre-school. Both of their kids, Jolie and Tyler, are active in church. My daughter, Diana Deering, is a licensed Christian Counselor. My brother, Casey, and his three children, Adam Emanuel, CaeLee Overturf Hall, and Levi Overturf, have been very active at South Hickory Hill Christian Church. All three are good singers and play instruments. Casey's (my youngest brother) daughter, CaeLee, and his daughter-in-law, Elaine Emanuel, sang and played the guitar on the Praise Team in the past. CaeLee, Kyle Minor (My sister Carolyn's son-in-law), Kyle and Mychelle's two sons, Gage and Isaac, and my son, John Wall have all been on out-of-the-country mission trips and my granddaughter, Hope Pradahn, and grandson, Devon Heisner, have been on short-term mission trips in the states. My sister, Carolyn Petersen’s, daughter, Mychelle Minor, and Mychelle's son, Isaac, did sing on the Praise Team at Central Christian Church in Mt. Vernon, IL but Mychelle is now more or less homebound with health problems. Her husband, Kyle, is actively involved there. Kyle took a short-term mission trip to Brazil and he and the boys went to Puerto Rico. Kyle is going to the Amazon soon. Carolyn's son, Brandyn, helps out wherever he can, especially in the kitchen, at the same church. The twins, Carolyn Petersen and Marilyn Cockrum, have sung in church since they were young but gave it up for the most part when Mom passed years ago. My sister, Marilyn, went on a mission trip that was intended for Mexico but by Providential intervention, ended up in the flooded area of Texas. Both of Butch's daughters, Gail Morris and Bethany Anderson, are active Christians. Bethany sings on the Praise Team at Woodlawn Christian Church. Gail and her husband, Ed Morris, were dorm parents at a Christian college and they now serve in disaster areas. Butch developed mental illness, largely because of serving in the Vietnam War, but he kept up a relationship with God until he died a few years ago at the VA Hospital. Sharon has maintained a strong relationship with the Lord and I know at least one of her children does too. Linda has a strong faith and is quick to express it. Her son, Scott Martin, has managed to maintain his strong faith even though he works in the non-Christian entertainment industry in Hollywood. As for myself, I have had six articles published in the Christian Standard and taught Sunday School in Nashville, IL for over 20 years. And Mom’s spiritual legacy goes on and on. THIS is what motherhood is all about. And this is how God has worked in our lives. I would love to add this, my testimony, to that book that inspired me so many years ago.
--Becky Overturf Wall
