A twist of fate

Matt Lauer 'Today' anchor • Profile

UPLAND, INDIANA -

Colleen Cerak: I always feel like I lived a charmed life. Great husband. Two kids. You know, had a nice job. Lived in a great town. So I just -- you kind of almost feel like you're waiting for something to happen.

Matt Lauer: Do you ever question, Susie, how God could have let this happen?

Susie Van Ryn: Sure. You want to say that. And yet I don't have to look very far to see that it happens all the time. It happens everywhere to anyone. And why should I be any different?

This is a story about two families on an emotional journey unlike anything you've seen before. It's a story of deep faith and undying love -- and how both were tested to the limit by an almost unimaginable twist of fate.

It begins with two lovely young women whose lives became intertwined forever on a cool spring evening two years ago.

Laura Van Ryn was 22 at the time. Her parents, Don and Susie, lived in Caledonia, Mich. Laura was the youngest of four children.

She had an older sister, Lisa, and two brothers, Kenny and Mark. Laura and her boyfriend, Aryn, had been dating for three years. Everybody knew they'd get married.

Matt Lauer: What was she like as a child growing up? Mom?

Susie Van Ryn: Happy. Giggly, joyful. Just loved being wherever everybody was. She was a lot of fun. Liked everybody. Everybody liked her because she was just real and genuine.

Whitney Cerak was 18. She grew up in GayLord, Mich., with her parents, Newell and Colleen, and her older sister, Carly.

Colleen Cerak: Whitney was just an amazing girl. I know I’m partial because I’m her mom, but she was just a lot of fun to be with. She made people feel special. She made us feel special.

Whitney was a freshman and Laura a senior, at Taylor University, a small evangelical Christian school in Indiana.

Newell Cerak: This sounds maybe quaint. But a real family feeling that you're connected with so many other people there.

Laura and Whitney were both outgoing and athletic, with a wide circle of friends. They didn't know each other well, but one night they worked together at Taylor's Fort Wayne campus, setting up a banquet.

Matt Lauer: Susie, did you talk to Laura that day?

Susie Van Ryn: Actually, I had tried to call her phone between 8:00 and 8:30 that evening. I didn't get through and so I thought, "Well, I’ll call her later."

Matt Lauer: How about you, Lisa?

Lisa Van Ryn: We had been playing phone tag up to that day. And she left me a message, I believe on their trip up to Fort Wayne. And I hadn't called her back.

At about 8 p.m., their work done, Laura and Whitney, along with seven other students and staff members, were riding in a school van. The were heading south on interstate 69, towards the main campus. Whitney's sister Carly -- also a student at Taylor -- was the first to hear that something was wrong.

Carly Cerak: My friend Ben drove up and told me that there was an accident. And he thought that Whitney was in it. So I called her cell phone and there was no answer. Then I started to kind of worry. And I called her cell phone again and again. And now I just started noticing people just kind of running around everywhere and coming up to me and talking to me and asking me if I had talked to Whitney.

Matt Lauer: Did they talk about the severity of the accident at that time to you?

Carly Cerak: I was hearing that people had died in the accident, but not everyone had died.

Carly and Whitney’s mom was home in GayLord, a five-hour drive away. Their father was on a church trip in Mississippi. Carly tried to call them both but couldn't get through at first.

Colleen Cerak: We were talking on the phone. It was about 10:00. And--

Newell Cerak: Right.

Colleen Cerak: And so Newell kept on hearing, you know, that little beep on the phone. And--

Matt Lauer: Call waiting.

Colleen Cerak: --Carly--

Matt Lauer: Someone was trying to get through.

Newell Cerak: Yeah. Yeah.

Colleen Cerak: Kind of ignored it because we had just had a chance to kind of catch up on what was going on. So then she tried me and that's when, you know, she didn't talk long at all. She was just like, "Mom, you just need to pray." And so we just -- you know -- it was kind of scary. I just started praying.

At about the same time, Laura Van Ryn's parents and sister were all at home in Caledonia. Their phone rang as well.

Susie Van Ryn: Someone said, "Is this the Van Ryn residence?" and I thought maybe it was a telemarketer or something. And I was all ready to say, "We’re not interested." And I think he said something like, "We have your daughter, Laura, in the hospital in Fort Wayne. She's been in an accident." And it took me a second or so to kind of grasp that. And then I just looked at Don and I said, "I think you better get on the phone."

Don Van Ryn: And he told us that there had been an accident, a serious accident. And she was in critical condition. And that we would need to, you know, start making our way down there.

Within minutes they were speeding toward Indiana, a two-and-a-half hour drive. They kept getting phone calls from the hospital. And they struggled to grasp the severity of Laura’s injuries.

Lisa Van Ryn: She was unconscious--

Susie Van Ryn: --unconscious--

Lisa Van Ryn: --is what they told us in the car.

Susie Van Ryn: Right. And-- did we know then that she had some broken bones, perhaps?

Don Van Ryn: Probably. And we knew then that she had a head injury, because they were calling to get our permission to put the spike, they call it -- tube into her head that monitors swelling or bleeding of the brain. So we gave them that permission of course.

Matt Lauer: You're hours away. And you're hearing about all of these things that are happening because of the grave condition of your daughter. Can you compare it to anything in your lives?

Don Van Ryn: I don't think so. No.

Susie Van Ryn: You want to believe that accidents happen a lot. They're not always fatal and, you know, so that's what you're thinking. She's alive. They can fix this. And all you can say is, "God, just take care of her. Please. Be with her and keep her alive."

Video   Watch the story After a college trip ended in tragedy, a young survivor was cared for by a family that began to suspect she’s not their daughter. Dateline NBC

Meanwhile Whitney’s parents were still desperate for any news about their daughter.

Newell Cerak: I was beside myself. I just didn't -- I needed information and I couldn't get it. I didn't want to tie up the phone because I knew -- I was hoping and praying Colleen would get in touch with me.

Colleen Cerak: Just pleaded. Just pleaded with God -- just not Whitney.

What neither family knew yet was just how deadly the crash had been.

A truck driver had lost control of his loaded semi. The big rig crossed the median and sideswiped the Taylor University van, ripping it open. The impact flung passengers and their belongings all over the interstate.

Five of the nine people on the van were killed instantly. They were transported to the county hospital. The four survivors all suffered injuries -- some serious.

One young woman had been thrown 50 feet from the wreckage. She was barely breathing and was quickly airlifted to the nearest trauma center, Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne.

That's where Laura Van Ryn’s family was told to go. They arrived at about 1:15 in the morning.

Susie Van Ryn: In the lobby right there there are a dozen or 15--

Lisa Van Ryn: Twenty maybe.

Susie Van Ryn: -- of Laura’s friends. A couple roommates. And so we were, you know, greeted by them.

Matt Lauer: Greeted with tears, greeted with hugs?

Susie Van Ryn: Oh, yeah.

Matt Lauer: Prayers?

Susie Van Ryn: All of the above.

They didn't know whether Laura would survive the next few hours, or if she'd ever be the same person again. But for now, at least, she was alive.

Whitney's mom was hoping and praying that her daughter had also survived.

Matt Lauer: And then the phone rang.

Colleen Cerak: Right.

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