A Miracle You Can’t See

Even when calamity strikes, take heart. Maybe it’s a miracle you can’t see.

Sandy Krause would be the first to agree with that counsel. Had it not been for a hit-and-run accident on a busy street in Mobile, Alabama, her baby daughter may have died. Even today, more than three decades later, the memory gives Sandy chill bumps. 

“Everything fell into place all because a man driving a blue truck hit me and left,” Sandy said. “Michelle is our miracle baby.”

Belief in Miracles

Although I’ve known Sandy for decades, this story was unknown to me. She contacted me because I posted a message on social media asking followers to share their miracle stories with me. 

With the craziness today, I thought readers might enjoy them. Why not kick off the new year with a dose of hope? 

Furthermore, I figured stories about extraordinary events might resonate with many. According to surveys, 72 percent of Americans believe miracles happen all the time even though they violate the laws of nature. 

Of course, naysayers abound but Sandy isn’t one of them. 

“Even at your lowest point, you need to look beyond what’s happening,” she said. “Maybe it’s a miracle you can’t see.”

And that’s the message she wants to impart on you.

Poof, and He Was Gone

The accident happened in December 1987, a few years before cellphones became as ubiquitous as big box stores. Sandy, then very much pregnant and weeks shy of her due date, was on her way home when a man driving a blue truck slammed into her stopped car. 

“Nick (the oldest of her two sons) was in the back, and I was trying to make sure he could get out. The back end of my car was crushed in, and we couldn’t get the doors open. I was so discombobulated. I couldn’t get out of the car.” 

She never saw or spoke with the driver, she said, because he left the scene. 

“The police were concerned,” Sandy said. “They said they’d charge him with homicide if anything happened to the baby.”

Something Was Wrong

At the hospital, meanwhile, Sandy’s doctors induced labor. Due to back injuries that Sandy sustained in the accident, they didn’t want to wait, and baby Michelle was born the next day. 

But something was wrong. The baby wasn’t urinating, and her blood-sugar levels were abnormal. 

An X-ray showed a grapefruit-sized tumor connected to Michelle’s tailbone. Although a sonogram could have revealed the mass, Sandy’s obstetrician didn’t perform the procedure, and therefore no one knew of its existence or the fact that it had put pressure on the baby’s kidneys and bladder, preventing her from eliminating waste outside the womb. 

Doctors transported baby Michelle to another hospital where they performed emergency surgery. 

And still, Mobile city cops couldn’t find the hit-and-run driver.

Blessing in Disguise

“At first I was mad,” Sandy said. “I was irritated that they couldn’t find this guy.”

But a doctor opened her eyes to a different reality. 

Had Sandy gone to term and then suffered a long, difficult labor, he believed her baby would’ve died in childbirth. Michelle couldn’t have survived the added physical stresses.

To him, the accident was a blessing in disguise.

“So many things could have happened,” Sandy said. “Michelle had to be born early to live. I realized then that God sent us a miracle. Something horrible happened, but It was His way of saving our baby. It was a divine moment.”

A Man or An Angel?

And the driver? 

Although a large crowd had gathered following the crash, no one could describe him. No one got his license plate or saw him leave, let alone admonish him to remain on the scene until police arrived. 

He vanished . . . as if he never existed. 

Do you think he was a real man? I asked. “I don’t know,” Sandy answered. “Sometimes I think he was an angel.”

A miracle you can’t see.

~~~

This is the second in a series of blog posts about inexplicable events that violate the laws of nature. Granny Smith, a character in My debut novel, Always Think of Me, fervently believes they happen. So does her traumatized granddaughter, ginny, who experiences a miraculous encounter herself. That’s all I’ll say. go to Amazon to preorder the book.