Mom's Car Wreck

In 1967, I was 20 years old. I had just been assigned to the Fulton and was settling in, when I was summoned to the chaplain's office. Its never good news in the Chaplain's office.

He notified me that my mom had been killed in a head-on-collision in Texas.  The funeral was scheduled for the next week. I was given emergency compassionate leave and an advance on my pay to buy an airline ticket home.  

When I got home, my dad was overwhelmed with grief and was barely functioning. Wanda, Joe, and Ted arrived right around the same time as I did. 

How the accident happened

While Mom and Dad were living & working at the ranch in Fulshear, they had rented out their house in Victoria. When Dad retired, they had to leave the ranch so someone else could take over his position as caretaker. So, they decided to move back to Victoria, which was about 2 hours southwest of Fulshear (Fulshear is just west of Houston).

Mom and dad had made a couple of trips back and forth, loading up both mom's car and dad's each time to save having to make too many trips.

I’m not sure about all the details of the accident, but here's what I remember: 

Mom was in her car and had a head-on-collision with another car. The other car had a young couple who were returning to Victoria from Prairie View A&M. They had two small kids, but the kids were not with them. All three of them died in the crash, including my mom.  

I think my dad saw the whole thing, but we never talked about it.

Ted told me that mom was driving her car, and the other car failed to make a curve safely and came right at mom’s car. She tried to avoid the accident but was unsuccessful. He also told me my dad cut up his hands trying to break the driver's side window to get my mom out of the car. There was nothing he could do, she was already dead, but he tried anyway.

After the funeral, I went back to New London to continue my tour of duty on the Fulton.

A little about my mom

My mom was the glue that held our family together.  Everyone came to her bitching about what this sibling or the other had done to them.  This was usually Joe and Wanda. They seemed to always be at odds.

Ted and I on the other hand were perfect and never caused a problem.

Dad was a typical 50’s father type. He was of the opinion that whoever had a problem with another should be put in a pen and left to fight it out. Mom was the true peace maker.

My mom was the greatest cook ever. Just my humble and biased opinion. She made everything from scratch, and it always tasted great. EXCEPT for vegetables. I’m sure the veggies tasted great, if you like them, but Dad was a meat and taters guy, and I emulated him.

Mom would make fresh pies, and I have never tasted any better. About once a month she would make fresh bread and rolls. She would mix up the ingredients and let the dough sit over night to “rise." One of the ingredients in fresh bread is yeast, and as the yeast breaks down, it forms bubbles in the dough. A couple of times during the day as the dough was “rising" she would uncover it and knead the dough to break down the bubbles.

AND THE SMELL. 

You've probably seen cartoons where someone is smelling some delicious food and they kind of float towards it, that’s the way my mom’s bread drew me. I would walk through the door of our house, and be immediately drawn to the kitchen.

After the Wreck

When my mom died in the car wreck, our family went from 1 unit to 5 separate units. Dad, and the 4 kids.

Ted kind of took over mom's role as peace maker, but never had the success that mom had.  Ted and I were closer than I was with Wanda or Joe, and we still are today.  Ted is the one I get all my family history from.

When I got back to the Fulton, I had to jump right back into work.  There wasn’t a lot of time to grieve, and I didn’t feel the need to waste my time grieving. I had my job to learn, and that was important to me.