My friends Malinda and Chris

(photo by mary)
I am sure many of you have heard this news by now, but if not I am about to tell you what happened To Chris and Malinda last Saturday night in Whitewater WI. First though I want to say that the brain is a weird thing… I am remembering back to high school psychology where we learned the 7 stages of grief… and I think I have already recognized two of these seven stages.. The first is disbelief… and when you read what you are about to, you will probably have the same reaction.. I have been in this weird cloud since I heard about it, that my friends are really in the hospital. Somewhere between last night and this am, I have realized I have moved on to denial. I am seriously thinking that this DID NOT happen to my friends, they are not in the hospital, they are going on with their daily lives and this weekend me, chris, malinda and mary are going down to Chicago to see the American Idol concert. I have yet to cry about this, and I think its because of the two stages I have hit so far.. I am tearing up right now, but that’s as far as I have reached so far. Now onto what happened. Saturday Chris' father got married.. After the wedding and reception Malinda, Chris and Steve went out to celebrate (there could have been more people, but this is all I am aware of at this point). After going to Downstairs (bar in downtown WW), they started back to Mary's house. Mary lives MAYBE 3 blocks from the Downstairs. From what I have been told this is what happened: there were a bunch of people crossing the street in the crosswalk. Steve was in front of Chris and Malinda. Steve heard some noise and looked back to see his sister Malinda and her hubby Chris flying thru the air. A Ford Ranger, whose driver made no attempt at stopping (no squealing breaks) had just hit Chris and Malinda. Mary was at home when this happened, she heard the sirens going off, and thought nothing of it. Minutes later Steve came running to the house saying that Chris and Malinda got hit by a truck. Mary ran out to the scene of the accident where she found Malinda laying on the ground still. Malinda had no idea that she had been hit. They were both flown to Froedert Hospital in Milwaukee. They both suffered injuries to their pelvis. Chris has broken bones in his neck and near his tailbone. They put a pin in yesterday to immobilize his knee and put him in traction. They are hoping the brace will work on the bone in his neck, and they wont have to do surgery there. His face and head are bruised and swollen, as of Monday night they had not cleaned his wounds yet as everything was still so tender and painful for him. Malinda has a skull fracture, a broken bone behind her eye (which is all bruised) she has a big open wound on her forehead and one on her shoulder. Both are awake and aware of whats happening.

I am not sure what happened with the guy who hit them afterwards… I don’t know the story of if he stopped or whatever, but they did arrest him for drunken driving… We are hoping and praying hes got insurance on that truck (unlike in MN, you don’t have to have insurance!).

So there it is. That’s whats been on my mind over the last few days. I feel so detached from the situation that its hard to wrap my brain around it. I have tickets on the megabus to go out to milwaukee this Friday, and return on Monday. Malinda was to pick me up at the bus stop and then we would go back to her house for the night and then head to chicago to see my david cook! Now, steven will be picking me up and going straight to the Froedert to visit them. Mary and I have been talking about what our plans are for the weekend, but they are pretty much up in the air right now. We will be heading down to Chi-town to see the concert, but with two less people :( I am very sad, I was looking forward to seeing the two of them! Malinda and Mary were here in April, and the last I saw chris was back on New Years! Anyway, it will be bitter sweet being at that concert. I don’t often ask for prayers as that is a very personal thing between you and God. But, I am going to ask this time… Please please please keep Malinda and Chris in your prayers!!