June 2008 Newsletter

The Sad News....
On Sunday morning, May 4th at 7:50, Ben Simmons, my father-in-law of almost 25 years, departed this world.For 81-years, Papa Simmons encouraged his sons to be responsible men, devoted husbands, and supportive fathers. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!My husband and I were in Chicago, attending the annual Romance Slam Jam Conference, when we received word that doctors were giving Papa Simmons two days to live. This is my brief tribute to the father of eight, grandfather of fifteen, and great-grandfather of four known as the "Family Man."photos.patsimmons.net.

The Bad News...
On Tuesday morning, May 13th, my husband, Kerry, had knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus. He is at home recovering until the end of June.

The Horrible News...
Early last Saturday, on May 24th, at 5:30 a.m., I received “The call” that every parent dreads, "This is Barnes Jewish Hospital, and we have your son, Jared, who was involved in a terrible accident."
My husband, daughter, and I prayed quietly en route to the emergency room. Once in the parking garage, we couldn’t get out the car fast enough. After clearing the emergency room’s metal detectors, the desk nurse advised us that only two visitors were allowed at a time. Simi waited while Kerry and I journeyed through a maze to trauma room four.
There stretched on a gurney secured in a neck brace and twisted bloodied sheets, laid our only son. His roaming eyes were glossy and his forehead bruised. His tortured face recognized us.
Whew, he was alive, I thanked God.
Considering I didn’t know where my son had been or whom he was with, I began firing off questions and I didn’t care who answered.
Brooke, the emergency room nurse, said, “The only thing we know is he was in a terrible rollover accident. He was found in the back seat.”
I scrutinized Jared, again. This time I noticed his admission wrist band, identifying him as “John Doe.” I listened as Brooke recited details. “He came in about three. He had trouble breathing. He kept mentioning Chris, but no one else was found in the vehicle.”
My heart raced as I asked, “Jared, were you driving?”
Shaking his head that was still restrained by the neck brace, he answered, no.
I mentally created scenarios. Since he was in the backseat, there had to be two other occupants—the driver and the front passenger—I reasoned. It wasn’t unheard of for people to crash a vehicle and somehow have enough strength to flee the scene of the accident while an innocent person is injured.
“Can I see the police report,” I asked Brooke.
No such luck. She didn’t even see one. Okay, it was time to put my networking skills to work. Six-thirty in the morning, I started waking up people. While my husband phoned family, I called my good friend, AJ, first. Once I informed her that I was in the trauma unit, she was fully awake.
Because everything was sketchy, I asked if she could drive by Jared’s dorm to see if his car was there—it was. He wasn’t driving—I thought. My next call was to the police command post. As a member of the media, I routinely talk to officers to extract information they don’t want to release.
Unfortunately, the command post handles reports associated with fatalities. Still, I snooped for any tidbits about the non-fatal accident. Without a location, he couldn’t help me. I called my colleague at the television station. As assignment editors, we monitor more than 15 police and fire scanners around the metro area. “Brad, did you hear anything about a roll over accident overnight?”
“Let me check my notes,” he said, pausing. “Car crash happened at 2:45 at Broadway and E. Taylor . Person ejected, car exploded, and re-construction called.”
Thanking him, I hung up still not sure if this was the same accident. After all, Jared was alive.
Re-construction is NEVER called unless someone is dead, or death is eminent. I called command post back with the information. Finally, Officer Brown, who handled the scene, called me. What he told me had me thirty seconds away from speaking in tongues, thanking Jesus for sparing two lives. Oh yeah, it was another life besides Jared, but I’ll get to that later.
“Mrs. Simmons,” Officer Brown began. “I don’t know if you’re a religious person or not, but it was nothing but God who protected them. When I got on the scene, paramedics were working on your son. He was ejected from the vehicle and torpedoed 50 feet in the air before landing between two steel pillars without touching them. I knew he was dead. The only other young man had to be cut from the vehicle that split in two upon impact, spewing the motor yards away and landing near a highway. I knew he wouldn’t live with multiple fractures.” From the force of the impact, Jared and his friend were shot out of their shoes.
Officer Brown mentioned that the SUV was travelling at a high rate of speed before slamming into a concrete-based street light. After a day in the hospital, we clarified that the person ejected from the SUV was not my son, but his friend, Chris, who was rushed to another hospital in critical condition. Until word of the crash spread, Chris’ family and mine weren’t able to verify, that indeed, our sons were together.
After four days in the hospital, Jared was released. He had suffered fractured ribs, a bruise to his bowel, laceration to his kidney, a concussion, and a fractured foot. He will need months of recovery and physical therapy. Chris, on the other hand, remains hospitalized. He has a much longer recovery ahead. Both don’t remember anything from that night.
**Footnote: A few months ago when my heart was heavy about the direction my son’s life was going, God gave me Matthew 18:12-14: 12How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? 13And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. 14Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
I later found out that the other young man, Chris, like Jared, had been baptized in the name of Jesus and at one time, had also received the Holy Ghost. What are the odds that two lost sheep would be together on the road to a sure death (according to Officer Brown, in his 18 years of working a crash scene of that magnitude NO ONE has lived, BUT God reached out as the Shepherd and said, “I got’em.”
As soon as Jared can get into a wheelchair, he plans to testify about what God did for him.
Pictures of my son atJared.

The Blessed News...
Despite the storms in my life during the month, God still gave me a rainbow.I'm the first recipient of the Katherine D. Jones Award for humility and grace.

The Funny News...
This month, it's my turn to share a humorous YouTube video. There's a reason why I don't sing in a choir--I can't sing! This is my rendition of "I'll take you There with my version of the dreamgirls as my backup at this year's Romance Slam Jam: Pat Simmons singing in the choir

If you feel I deserve the recognition as your favorite Christian author, please cast your vote for me. The impressive APOOO Bookclub wants to know your favorite Christian titles by your favorite authors.The club president states, "You CANNOT nominate your own book. ;) If it's good, someone else should be able to nominate it." http://www.apooo.org/. One more request: If you are a member of the Black Expressions Bookclub, please drop them a note and ask them to add Guilty of Love to its list for readers. THANKS IN ADVANCE.
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What's next:Talk to Me, November 2008.Not Guilty of Love (Book II, sequel to Guilty of Love), September 2009.Still Guilty (Book III, final book of the series), April 2010.
Five months until the release of my second novel, Talk to Me.Meet Nick Dixon. Read the latest excerpt at TALKTOMEBOOK.blogspot.com

YOU CAN PRE-ORDER YOUR COPIES AT A DISCOUNT NOW ON AMAZON!
CONTEST.
I'm working on my 2009 13-month color calendar, and I would like to feature readers and bookclubs who have enjoyed Guilty of Love. It's easy. Just email me a jpeg of your group holding their copies (bought or borrowed) of Guilty of Love.Remember, there's only room for 13, so send in your jpegs today. Each picture will go into a drawing. The winning group will receive free calendars($16.00 value).Deadline: September 1, 2008.