Monks Saved Us After Truck Crashed
by Cheryl H.
(DFW, TX)
In February 2001 in the midst of the worst blizzard to hit the mountains of Northern New Mexico in decades, my husband and I encountered some angels without wings.
We were driving an old two-wheel-drive pickup thru 6 inches of snow. It was an dirt track road that twisted thru the scrub and canyon land.
As we rounded a corner, barely creeping we hit a patch of ice on a downhill grade that turned about 90 degrees at the bottom of the grade over a crude bridge. Instead of turning with the direction of the road, the trucks just slid straight forward and into the gully.
The old truck only had lap belts which did little to stop me from jerking forward and my forehead smashing into the windshield. My glasses broke and I felt, actually heard, a scrunching in my neck.
We were 4 miles from the main road. From there it was over 8 miles, in one direction to the highway, and from there it was 16 miles to the nearest town and phone.
However, if we went the other direction once we reached the main road it was 8 miles to the Christ in the Desert Monastery. We began walking in snow up to our shins.
We walked four miles in the cold and blowing snow. That four miles took over four hours, and dark was rapidly approaching when we finally reached the main road. We debated heading toward the highway or the monastery. We finally decided that we knew there was safety at the monastery, while reaching the highway was no guarantee that there would be any traffic in the blizzard.
Suddenly from the direction of town came a 4-wheel-drive vehicle heading towards the monastery. It was a couple of the monks returning from errands in town.
They took us to the monastery, fed us hot soup and gave us a room for the night. They really did save our lives, because I had just about reached the end of my ability to walk any further. They were my angels without wings.
