A twist of fate

Six days after the crash, May 2, 2006

(Lisa Van Ryn blog)

Laura's surgeries today went great! They set her broken leg and elbow, and added a couple of plates for stabilization. She'll get to be more entertaining going through metal detectors now! The tracheotomy went very well also… there is no longer anything in her mouth; all tubes, etc. have been removed. Laura’s color has improved a great deal. She also is still moving quite a bit.

Six days after the high-speed crash that nearly killed her, Laura Van Ryn was still in in intensive care, in a coma. She was heavily bandaged. Her face was swollen. As the days went by, her family never left her alone.

Matt Lauer: All these hours that you spent by her side, what were you saying? What did you talk about? What did you do?

Lisa Van Ryn: We would tell her that we were there. We would tell her who had come to visit. Kind of what we'd been doing that day. And just telling her positive things. "You're doing' great today. Your hair looks cute.”

Don Van Ryn: It's a beautiful sunny day here in Fort Wayne. It's springtime and the flowers are out. And then we sang to her.

Matt Lauer: Were there favorite songs that you sang to her?

Don Van Ryn: Susie called her her “sunshine girl.” And I think we did that “you are my sunshine, my only sunshine.”

Susie Van Ryn: Quite often I would sing, "This is the day that the Lord has made." It's just a little chorus and very quietly because I’m kind of quiet.

In the intensive care unit, Laura and her family were surrounded by loved ones.

Don Van Ryn: We had huge amounts of visitors. And so we took two or three at a time, because you had to keep it real low key. Numerous friends went back to see Laura. And they went and they saw Laura.

Matt Lauer: Did anyone come to you and say they felt unusual? That they saw anything unusual? That they had any doubts, fears, anything?

Susie Van Ryn: No.

Matt Lauer: Not one person?

Don Van Ryn: No.

Susie Van Ryn: No.

Don Van Ryn: No.

(Lisa Van Ryn blog)

Laura started moving a lot more today. At times, she squeezes hands, wiggles toes, squints her eyes (though still closed), and moves her legs and arms. She is still in a positive signs pull out comatose state, but her movements are very positive signs.

They watched for the tiniest signs of consciousness, but when one came it was a bit puzzling at first.

Matt Lauer: Lisa, you're at Laura’s bedside and she yawned, which I guess she hadn't done prior to that. And she kind of opened her mouth. And you noticed something about her teeth. Tell me what you saw?

Lisa Van Ryn: Well, I noticed that these two [teeth] on either side in the front looked different to me. They sat a little bit differently than I thought Laura’s teeth had been. And I said, "Look at her teeth." and I think I pulled up her lip a little bit. And we said, "Yeah, those look a little different." And we knew that Laura had, when she was thrown from the vehicle, they had found her up against the fence. And our speculation was that they had gotten hit and shifted a little bit.

Taylor University held a memorial service for the four students and one staff member killed in the crash on Sunday, May 7.

Whitney's family drove down from Michigan to attend.

Matt Lauer: On the highway, you pass the scene of the accident. Only this time there are five crosses on the side of the road. What did you do?

Colleen Cerak: I just remember getting out and, you know, looking at -- you could see the big crevices in the—

Newell Cerak: Median.

Colleen Cerak: --median that had been torn up by the truck coming across. And it was just one of those sobering times where you just kind of sit there and the reality of it was there.

Before the service, they had dinner at the home of the university's president. There they met the university official who had identified Whitney’s body.

Colleen Cerak: He's a good friend of ours. And we thanked him for what he had done. And my heart was just praying for him. For him not to have it hurt too much.

Newell Cerak: We felt bad that he was the one that had those visions in his head.

Matt Lauer: And no questions about--

Newell Cerak: No. No questions--

Matt Lauer: What did you--

Newell Cerak: --whatsoever.

Matt Lauer: --see? How was she? Nothing.

Newell Cerak: No. I never even had an inkling of even asking him anything like that. I just felt really bad that he had to do that.

Laura's family left her bedside for a few hours to attend the service.

Matt Lauer: What do you remember about that memorial service?

Don Van Ryn: Powerful. The place was packed.

One of the most powerful speeches came from Whitney’s father.

(From memorial service)

Newell Cerak: We know Jesus Christ has her in his presence right now. And that one day we'll see her again.

Matt Lauer: Did they put pictures of some of the victims up on a projection screen at the front of the room?

Don Van Ryn: Yes.

Matt Lauer: Do you remember seeing Whitney Cerek's photo go up?

Susie Van Ryn: Oh, yeah. It was -- you know, we saw all of them.

Matt Lauer: Did--

Susie Van Ryn: Sure--

Matt Lauer: -- did anything --

Susie Van Ryn: -- they are.

Matt Lauer: --register with you when you looked at her picture?

Susie Van Ryn: No.

Don Van Ryn: Not at all.

It was at the memorial service that the two families met for the first time.

Newell Cerak: I felt a tap on my shoulder. And I turned around and it was Don Van Ryn.

Don Van Ryn: I introduced myself as Laura’s father. And just let him know how we felt. How much compassion we had for his family and how we were praying for them. Yeah.

Newell Cerak: I just said, "Don, I just want you to know, I’m praying for your daughter. I'm very thankful for the progress that she was making," because we were constantly reading the blog as well.

Matt Lauer: Did you keep up with that?

Newell Cerak: Yeah, I did. I read it pretty much every day, I would get on. And at one point I said, “I just wonder, Colleen, how we would handle it if that was our daughter? I just don't know how strong a parent I am. Would I be able to handle taking care of a daughter that's been in a serious accident knowing that maybe she's going to be a vegetable for the rest of her life?" And I’ll just be honest with you. At that point we just said, "We're thankful that Whitney’s gone and that the Van Ryns are strong enough to deal with the situation that they're dealing with."

He couldn't know, at the time, how deeply ironic his words actually were.

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