The day I died again (this time in 1991)

   I have told this story many times but I have never sat down to write it out. I want to write a book and this story will be included and it will be weird to see it in words. As some of you know, back in 1981 I hit a stone wall at a 45 degree angle at about 45 mph. We don't know if I fell asleep or had the first seizure. I picked up a closed head injury that led to some big seizures and would be diagnosed as Epilepsy after many tests. This is important somehow but I forget why. Anyhow, I had been through a couple of near death experiences leading up to this day, but this one has a clarity and story that would be outright funny if not for the dying part. But the dying part comes back into play as the coolest thing that I can lay claim to.

   I worked a lot of construction jobs after I moved to Harrisburg and I could always find a crew to sign onto, be it roofing or paving work. But in 1991 I hit a dry spell and I was able to get in as a temp contractor at the PP&L Brunner Island power plant with IBEW Local 299 during a plant refurb. I worked some crazy 3rd shift hours and when I proved my worth, I was able to go to daylight and work unsupervised.

Brunner Island Power Plant

   The union guys liked me a lot but I had to slow down my work pace to fit in better. That's no disrespect, just how I worked when I was a young dude. They were so impressed that they let me be in charge of the re-spray of the control room panels in Unit 2....after I used my Vo-Tech training to teach them some body work skills. These were good times...before my name started showing up on ATF watch lists. Before a sitting president made getting a Beej in the Oval Office an acceptable thing. Before I let AT&T get into my blood, under my skin and over my head. These certainly were good times unless you were my 84 Ford Tempo. She had already taken a ghost ride through a neighbor's garage. I was about to finish her off.

   This particular day, I do not remember the date but I remember it was a Monday, was about to become a huge piece of my being. I know it was chilly and it was early to be up and drive to York County for this job, but this was a gift and the money was the best I had ever made to this point. It was winter time as I remember it being very dark at 0530 as I drove to the island. We used a small 1 lane road in and out of the plant to save the main road for plant traffic.

    I always remember looking at this one tree just off of the road and thinking, "that would suck to hit that big bitch" and I soon found out just how badly. It was a winding road to the Employee Entrance and it was dark. No lighting except from the car. I remember getting off of I-83 and heading towards the plant. I remember that winding road and that last turn with the big tree. And then everything just stopped. There was a period of nothing and then I remember being above the wreck, looking down. I could see my car flipped over on the driver side and I could see that I hit that big bitch tree head on. I don't know if I fell asleep or had a seizure but the hospital went with seizure, but that came later. I could see my neck bent at a severe angle with my body weight (I was a bit thinner then) on my neck and my skin was blue. I will swear to this day that God was standing beside me, just watching this mess unfurl. Seriously. The next thing I see is the first car on the scene, my supervisor. He surveyed the scene and I was blocking the road, sorry, my car and body were blocking the road. Suddenly a couple more cars showed up and everyone was out milling around trying to find a course of action. This was before cell phones and I was blocking the access to the closest phone for help. My supervisor sent a guy back to town to call 911. I was hearing and seeing all of this action. He made the decision to flip my car onto its' wheels so they could push it out of the road. Some of the guys objected, but the supervisor told them "He's already dead, what damage will it do?" In fact, I heard the whole thing. Once my car was on 4 wheels, I remember nothing else from the accident.

   The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital, just sitting on the end of a bed. I saw no nurses or doctors the whole time I was there. My first wife, Linda, shows up in tears. I asked her what the big deal was and she told me where I was and that she was called to come to the hospital to identify my body. I'm alive, I said...what's the problem? Linda told me about the wreck and I told her that I was there and saw most of it. Apparently the EMTs got my heart going and got some breath into my lungs and I came around in the ambulance....without a scratch. Head on into a tree, flipped over and not breathing.  But here I was, just fine. I told Linda that I was taking her home and taking her truck. I was going back to work. And the story gets better from here.

   I drove back down the road which "claimed my life" just a few hours before and there was that big tree, no bark, and pieces of my car in the weeds. Clearly something bad had happened here and I was seeing the area from a new angle but I knew it was from me. I pulled into the employee lot and parked. None of the guys knew Linda's truck so nobody reacted....until I walked through the plant gate. Grown men saw me and were crying and some fell to their knees in shock. I remembered these guys helping to flip my car over and they saw me lifeless just awhile ago. I never saw people react this way before....as if they were seeing a ghost. Suddenly the supervisor came over the loudspeaker calling for me to get in his office immediately. As I took a seat, he closed the blinds. He looked at me and asked if I could see what was happening....work was grinding to a halt. "What are you doing here?" he asked. "I'm here to work...you hired me to do a job and I'm here to fulfill my commitment.", was my response. He tried to tell me about my wrecked car and what was done and I told him, word for word, what he said at the scene. He was floored. He excused himself to make a phone call, not wanting me to step outside.He came back a few minutes later and said that he didn't know what to do with me. He called the Local and they went over the contract and had no way to address me standing there, in his office, after most of the workforce saw my lifeless body sitting along the road in my wrecked car.

   In a move that had never been done before, he told me to go home and use my 3 days for bereavement. He needed to call an urgent meeting and attempt to explain what had just happened, to the guys, in order to bring a semblance of order to the plant. I was escorted out of the office via a back door so the guys wouldn't see me. Yes. You read that correctly. I got paid for my own death. I also lost my license for a year...the doctor I never saw forwarded my epilepsy info to the state and they pulled me for a year. I left PP&L and Brunner Island so I could work closer to home and still drive the shorter distance.