I had always watched on the news or read on the newspapers about different accidents and tragedies; sometimes all the people survived, sometimes just some and sometimes not at all. I had always felt sad and wondered why these tragic events had to occur. But in all; I finally realised that in life, people are born at some point and people must die at another; and that sometimes bad things happen to good people and that sometimes where we are privileged to survive these bad things, it puts us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us. This is a story of my near death experience and how I survived to live another day.
I believe in God. I believe in a higher power. And I do believe that God works in mysterious ways, if not so I doubt I would have survived that fateful day. The journey was one I had made several times, from school to the house, from the house to school. It was a journey of nine gut-wrenching hours on the under-developed roads of this country, Nigeria and each time I arrived my destination safely, I gave thanks to God, for it could only be him.
It was on the 7th of February 2015, a Saturday to be precise that I was once again embarking on the journey back home. I had just completed my first semester examinations of my 300 level in the university and it was time to return home to rest for a while. The day began like every other ‘journey day’ as I fondly called it. My boxes were packed, my sweater handy, as it was usually cold and a silent prayer in my head. The driver had arrived the day before to convey myself and some of my colleagues back home. We got to the bus that morning and so the journey began.
As usual I sat at the back of the bus, close to where the boxes were kept; it was ‘my seat’ Being a long journey, I was in and out of sleep. But truth be told, it was very difficult to stay asleep for a long time due to speed at which the driver was going, I honestly hoped for the journey to end soon as the speed combined with the state of the road was too much for my heart to handle. The driver was cautioned several times to slow down but all complaints fell on deaf ears. We finally stopped to get food for the first time that day after so many hours; we were more than half way done with the journey. We all got our food and we were once again on the road. It all seems blurry now I think about it, but to be honest one moment I was fine, the next I was covered in blood. I remember seeing a trailer in front of the bus, I remember the driver swerving trying to avoid the trailer and finally I remember the bus hitting the trailer. The car began to spin uncontrollably, screams from everyone in the bus and then it all went black.
When I woke up; I was terrified and hysterical. I kept screaming at the top of my lungs, I did not understand what was going on, I felt so confused. I looked at my hands and I saw blood, I was covered in blood and then I realised I couldn’t see through one eye and I couldn’t move . I looked around me and I saw bodies lying still, not knowing if they were dead or alive. And at that moment I felt like my life was over, I did not know what was wrong with my eye but all I knew was that I couldn’t see through it and I feared the worst.
Inside the bus was a grotesque scene, the door was smashed and there was no way out, the chairs turned upside down and there was blood everywhere, and it wasn’t just mine. I was crying and screaming because the realisation had just kicked in that this was really happening. It wasn’t a dream and it wasn’t fiction. I was there in that moment, in that accident, something I had only read about, or saw on the news. It was actually happening to me and it wasn’t a pretty sight.
A lot of people had gathered the scene of the accident and were trying to help in every possible way they could. Some people were able to break the rear windscreen of the bus and they pulled me out and kept me by the side of the road and that is when I saw that the damaged bus and to my greatest surprise but for one more spin, the bus would have gone off the bridge and into the water and if that had happened, there would have been no chance of survival. I kept asking people around to tell me what was wrong with my eye, because I imagined my eyeball wasn’t in its socket anymore, I was that paranoid but they tried to calm me down. We were eventually rushed to the hospital and the battle began to stop the bleeding and save our lives. Miraculously, we all survived. I say, miraculously because everyone who had seen the accident or even a picture of the accident could not believe that anyone could come out of it and more puzzling that we all survived.
Honestly, that day is one I would never forget, the memory remains ingrained in my head and the scars forever a reminder of the events that took place but each day I am thankful for my family, health, home, all of nature, and my life. I am most appreciative that I realise how lucky I am to be alive. At the end of each day I remind myself that I’ve seen better days, but I’ve also seen worse. I don’t have everything I want, but I do have all I need. I woke up with some aches and pains, but I woke up. My life may not be perfect, but I am blessed. And in case you are wondering, sadly, my eye was never the same again, but truthfully I am grateful that I was able to ‘see’ another day and still doing so till date.
