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And sideswiped the taylor university van, ripping it open. the impact flung passengers and their belongings all over the interstate. five of the nine people on the van were killed instantly. they were transported to the county hospital. the four survivors all suffered injuries, some serious. one young woman had been thrown 50 feet from the wreckage. she was barely breathing and was quickly airlifted to the nearest trauma center, parkview hospital in ft. wayne. that s where laura van ryn s family was told to go. they arrived at about 1:15 in the morning. in the lobby right there there were a dozen or 15 of laura s friends, a couple roommates. we were greeted by them. greeted with tears, with hugs. oh, yeah. prayers. all of the above. they didn t know whether laura would survive the next few hours or if she d ever be the same person again. ....
did they put pictures of some of the victims up on a projection screen at the front of the room? uh-huh. do you remember seeing whitney cerak s photo go up? oh, yeah. you know, we saw all of them. did anything register with you when you looked at her picture? no. not at all. it was at the memorial service that the two families met for the first time. i felt a tap on my shoulder, and i turned around and it was don van ryn. i introduced myself as laura s father and just let him know how we felt. how much compassion we had for his family and how we were praying for them. i said, don, i want you to know i m praying for your daughter. i m very thankful for the progress she was making. because we were constantly reading the blog, as well. did you keep up with that? i did. i read it pretty much every day. i would get on. at one point, i said, i wonder colleen, how we would handle it if that was our daughter. ....
Her mouth. all the tubes, et cetera, have been removed. laura s color has improved a great deal. she also is still moving quite a bit. six days after the high-speed crash that nearly killed her, laura van ryn was still in intensive care in a coma. she was heavily bandaged, her face was swollen. as the days went by, her family never left her alone. all these hours that you spent by her side, what were you saying to her? what did you talk about? what did you do? we would tell her that we were there. we would tell her who had come to visit. kind of what we had been doing that day. just telling her positive things. you re doing great today. your hair looks cute. it s a beautiful, sunny day here in ft. wayne. it s springtime, and the flowers are out. then we sang to her. were there favorite songs that you sang to her? ....
It begins with two lovely young women whose lives became intertwined forever on a cool spring evening, two years ago. laura van ryn was 22 at the time. her parents, don and suzy, living in caledonia, michigan. laura was the youngest of four children. she had an older sister, lisa and two brothers, kenny and mark. laura and her boyfriend aaron had been dating for three years. everybody knew they d get married. what was she like as a child growing up? mom? happy. giggly, joyful, just loved being where everybody was. she was a lot of fun.v everybod. she was a lot of fun. liked everybody, everybody liked her because she was just real. and genuine. whitney cerak was 18. she grew up in gaylord, michigan, with her parents and her older sister carly. whitney was just an amazing girl. ....
I know that i couldn t i wanted a picture of whitney who was this beautiful, living, vibrant little girl instead of i would keep that picture in my head as opposed to, you know, a battered body. 50 miles away at parkview hospital, laura s parents and sister were steeling themselves, preparing to see her for the first time since she had been terribly injured in the crash. they had told us at that point, expect to see her in an altered state. she s got tubes coming out everywhere. you know, she s bruised up. she s not going to look like herself. not going to look like herself, right. so when you walked in the room? what did she look like? what did we see? well, a lot of things that were foreign, like machines and tubes, and, really, she was ....