How is it possible to write such an incredibly hard post?? I don't even want to, but
I know how mom felt about family history, and about journol keeping, and
writing everything down, even when it feels impossible.
It was in the afternoon on August 14, 2020. Maybe around 2:00, we got a text from
Mary, I think letting us know that mom and dad were in a possible accident. Joel
and Mary track mom and dad's phone, and their location was still on the reservation, between
Globe and Safford mile marker 264, closer to Globe.
They thought that maybe they were behind a bunch of cars waiting for an accident
to be cleared. Or maybe pulled over to stretch. They both tried calling with no response.
Mary and Tyson started to drive toward the spot where they're signal had stopped. Joel
contacted OnStar, mom and dad's car company and they confirmed that both airbags had
deployed. The siblings were told this much by text. Mary got to the accident scene and the
police would not let them through, so they had to go around, 20 min. When Tyson and Mary
arrived on the scene, dad was laying out on the ground by the passenger side door,
where he was pronounced dead, and mom
had been taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. What a strange word.
Dead.
I have only thought of Dead as older people who go to heaven when they have completed
a nice life here on the earth. I didn't think of it for my parents, it just doesn't happend to
people like us, right? Mary called Joel and Jeremy and told them everything. Joel and
Jeremy called all of the siblings on FaceTime. Somehow, we were all available to take a call.
For me, it was significant that Scott was in the house at the time. It was probably around 4:00 PM
when we all talked. Joel told us that there had been a horrible accident, and that dad died instantly.
Mom, we were unsure how long she had to suffer before she finally left, perhaps a couple of hours This part breaks my heart so much. We teased a little bit that dad was so ready to leave this frail exsistence, and he was on his way to paradise when he looked back and mom wasn't going with him. He came back to her and said, "lets go Susan" she said, "wait, what about our kids and grandkids? I need to stay with them" Dad was adamant and told her to "come on Susan, it's time" She left and went with him. I have been so heart sick about her time of trauma and suffering. I have talked to EMTs that work on the reservation
and to Doctor's trying to get someone to tell me that she was too much in shock to know
the extent of her injuries. Dallin and Sara were with us, since they had just moved from Wheeling, WV to work with Scott for a year. It was so nice to have some of our kids here. We had them come into
our room and we FaceTimed our kids to tell them what happened. When we ended our call with my siblings Nathan said a prayer. It was so sweet and tender and the spirit was very strong. We said a prayer with our kids as well. It was a very sweet tender time.
Just 2 and a 1/2 weeks before Dad sent out this text to all of us kids. We call it "The Last Text" Amazing how he was preparing us without even realizing it, I am so greatful that we have this, and what it means to me individually and to my family and posterity. I have relied on my parents testimonies throughout my life, so it is wonderful to have this in writing, and the timing was spirit led, I know.
This is the morning after, all of the Safford kids just gravitated to mom and
dad's house, so we called everyone else. It always felt better when we
could be together. We found peace in each other. I think it was Rachel
who first started to say, "the greates gift that mom and dad gave us, was each other"
and that is the truth.
The Herringtons came over the day after, They were soul friends with mom and dad
mom and dad were coming home from Mesa to attend Henry's baptism
something that they just would not miss!! They never missed any baptisms.
We watched the baptism on video, because at the time Covid was rampant, and we were supposed
to be social distancing.
Mom wrote this about 2 months before the accident. We were unknowingly being
prepared by our parents.
We went to the local copy shop to pick up pictures of mom and dad for
the funeral. It was amaxing this week, how we were bouyed up by the spirit and by
each other.
