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Wednesday, November 22, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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Grateful and thankful
By Phyllis and Bill Morris
Guest Columnists
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The Nugget Newspaper will be closed Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 23.
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let-
ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be
no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday.
To the Editor:
We are long-time residents of Eastern and
Central Oregon and we totally agree with the
letter written last week by Ken Serkownek.
We grieve that assault weapons are so readily
available. When the ban on assault weapons
was not renewed in 2004, we feared that the
result would be bad. Had no idea how horrible
it would be... and it just keeps getting worse!
It is time to immediately halt the sale of
the ammunition for assault rifles, and to make
ownership of these weapons of mass destruc-
tion illegal. We all ask what will it take? And
58 dead, 26 dead, 8 from one family, 21 dead
including 15 or so children apparently is not
enough, and that is not to mention so many
other killings of lesser numbers!
It is frightening to hear nearby rapid-fire
gunshots from our front porch most days of
the week.
We need to keep pushing, and Ken has the
right idea: it will take voting out any supporter
of the NRA. This organization used to be a
hunters’ organization, offering gun training for
See LETTERS on page 39
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My husband and I were
one of three cars that hit
black ice at mile marker
80 on the Santiam Pass on
November 6 at 3:30 p.m.
The roads were clear of
snow, but the melting snow
on the side of the road on
that banked curve devel-
oped into black ice and led
to three separate vehicle
accidents.
I can only say we saw the
car ahead of us hit the ice
and I immediately said to
my husband, “We are about
to be in an accident.”
Our F350 4x4 truck with
studded snow tires skated
across traffic, spun 360
degrees, caught some air and
landed in a 15- to 20-foot
ravine, right-side up.
Although we have been
coming to Sisters, Bend, and
Sunriver for over 35 years
without incident, the next
30 minutes showed me what
amazing people work and
live in Sisters.
Randy, another driver,
stopped his car, called 911
and came down to help us.
Oregon State Police Trooper
Scott Salisbury seemed
to appear immediately
afterward to come to our
assistance.
Oregon Department of
Transportation (ODOT)
arrived minutes later to
sand the area so the emer-
gency vehicles could arrive
safely and keep other traffic
from harm. Sisters’ ambu-
lance arrived soon after,
and everyone worked to get
us out of our totaled truck.
I knew I had a concussion,
broken nose and sternum,
but could not see much, for
all the blood from my nose
had gotten into my eyes. My
husband was driving and
had bruised his back and
neck but was able to climb
out of the ravine.
Everyone worked quickly
to get us up to the ambulance
where we met Christine
from Sisters Ambulance —
what a wonderful lady. St.
Charles Medical Center took
great care of us, too.
About 9 p.m., Trooper
Salisbury showed back up
to check in on us and let us
know our truck was at Davis
Towing. He was kind, jovial,
consoling and seemed more
like a concerned friend. Our
airbags did not deploy, and
he told us that if we had not
been wearing our seat belts,
we would have been ejected
from the truck and died. We
always wear our seat belts,
but his comment really
drove the point home what
a serious accident we just
survived.
The next day, he and
ODOT retrieved my hus-
band’s suitcase and other
belongings that had flown
out of the truck, took them
to Davis Towing for us to
pick up.
The morning after the
accident, when we went to
the front desk at Sunriver
“Vacation International” at
The Pines to find a way back
into Bend to obtain a rental
car, the manager and assis-
tant manager insisted on
driving us. They also took
great care of us the remain-
der of the week and arranged
for meals since we lost our
cooler.
When we went to Davis
Towing in Sisters to get the
contents of what was left
in our vehicle, we found all
our valuable belongings still
in the truck, and they gave
us a hand to collect what
we could and trash bags
to transport the wet messy
items that were also covered
with beef stroganoff, marga-
rine, mayo, soup and milk,
etc.
Kathleen Davis kept
reaching out with warm
comments, hugs, and made
us feel as if we were family.
When we finally left Davis
Towing, I took my hus-
band’s hand and we thanked
God for all the amazing
people who reached out to
us and helped us through a
very stressful experience.
Thanksgiving and being
grateful for those around
you, for every day you wake
up alive, for the opportu-
nity to make today a better
day for others and yourself,
should not just happen on
the holiday “Thanksgiving.”
It should be every day.
We are truly thank-
ful for all the people who
touched our lives the week
of November 6. We are
grateful to be alive, to have
seen so much good in the
world during a bad experi-
ence that would have been
worse without the amazing
people in Sisters, Bend and
Sunriver. We will be grate-
ful and saying prayers of
Thanksgiving to all of you
for being there for us, the
rest of our lives.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.