These three ladies changed our lives

Reader-peeps, I’d like to introduce you to three young women who changed our lives.

Literally. Because they saved Ken’s life.

This is Lexie, Cass, and Jessica. (And Ken, but you know him already.)

When Ken had his accident, they were the first people on the scene, on a remote, not-well-traveled road. Although they didn’t see the accident happen, they saw a cloud of dust they thought was a dust-devil…then saw the bike skidding down the road towards them, and Ken lying in the road.

They called 911. When emergency services asked what mile marker they were at, Jessica headed out to find the nearest one. (Do you pay attention to the last mile marker you passed? Neither do I!) Meanwhile, Lexie headed back to direct any traffic around Ken. And Cass sat with Ken and held his hand and talked to him until emergency services arrived.

We got Jessica’s contact info from the police report a few months ago and sent her a card with a picture of us and a letter thanking her. Soon after that Ken received an email from her and another from Cass. So when we knew we were going to be in Tahoe a few days, we contacted them to see if we could take them out to dinner. Happily, they were free, and we met them at a Thai restaurant near the hospital, and I ate when I was there in July (when I took more wonderful friends out to dinner to thank them for helping out). (The restaurant has the best crab rangoon appetizers I’ve ever had, and I love me some crab rangoon, so that’s saying something.)

Anyway. The ladies were as happy to meet Ken as we were to meet them, and to see that he was healing well. They filled in some of the details of the accident site for us, and we got to know them a bit, which was a true pleasure.

To say they’re awesome would be an understatement. I like to believe the best in people, that anyone would have stopped. (And indeed, we learned, more people did, including an EMT and a firefighter, both off-duty.) But these three not only stopped, but figured out what to do, worked well together, and stayed until Ken was in the ambulance. They believe things happen for a reason, and so do we.

Also, the experience inspired Cass to go back to school to become a paramedic herself. (I can’t think about that without tearing up. Excuse me while I flap my hands helplessly for a moment…. Okay. Deep breath. I’m back.)

Jessica, Cass, Lexie, dinner isn’t enough to truly show you how grateful we are to you. Nor is a simple thanks even close to enough. But, thank you, from our hearts.