The very reason that women have morning sickness is due to the body’s immune system reacting to a foreign intruder. Some women experience mild nausea, others go through moderate nausea and vomiting. My “sickness” was severe. For a few women, the body reacts violently to the intrusion, causing severe nausea, vomiting, and fatigue. By the end of my first trimester, I had lost twenty-two pounds. On April 14, 1973, I weighed 110 pounds. This is significant because of the accident that left me in intensive care for three weeks.
I was driving to a neighboring town that April night to meet my husband, Mike at a pool hall where he was playing in a tournament. As I approached the bridge between Hattiesburg and Petal, a drunk driver slammed into my car, pushing it off the bridge until it perched over a deep ravine. I have no memory of the accident. Doctors told me it was best if I never remembered it. Angels were watching over me that night. My parents had been driving back from a visit with relatives. From the road opposite the ravine, my father saw the accident. Because he was a police officer and had worked many accident scenes, he pulled over and told my mother and younger brother to stay in the car until he got back. He eased down the side of the ravine and climbed up the steep side where my mangled car was dangerously close to sliding off for another crash. My father yelled across to my mother, “It’s Barbara.” My mother and brother ran down the steep incline and up the other side in a few seconds.
My accident was before the “jaws of life” came along. Because I was pinned in by the steering wheel, my father broke the seat to get me out of the car. As I lay on the cool grass in the night air awaiting the ambulance, I came to just long enough to answer the question, “Where is Mike?” A passer-by was sent for my husband as I was en route to Forrest General Hospital. Because my mother was with me and told them I was pregnant, I was shielded from harmful x-rays that could have caused great damage to my unborn child.
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