One Year After ACU Bus Wreck; Memorial Dedicated to Anabel Reid
By: Marlisa Goldsmith
Updated: November 2, 2012
"Just like it is every year. A little laughing, cutting up going on, then all of a sudden we saw what was fixin' to happen and that's all I remember," Assistant Professor Emmett Miller gives his account of a tragic day.
November 4, 2011, a bus carrying students and faculty from the ACU Agriculture Department flipped, sending over a dozen to area hospitals, and killing one.
ACU's Friday chapel was dedicated to the memorial of Anabel Reid, and it brought on mixed emotions.
"On the one hand, I don't want to remember that time. On the other hand though, I'm simply amazed at god's work in it all," says ACU Dean of Students,Jean-Noel Thompson.
Throughout the memorial service, songs were sung, prayers were read, and for the first time, victims publicly share their account of a day they will never forget.
One student describes, "My first thought was we really need to get back on the road, we're going to be late to Medina, and then I realized we weren't going to be going to Medina."
They also shared their perspective on life, after their life-changing experience.
Merissa Ford adds, "You're going to go through some awful times, like that's part of life, that's part of being human, that's part of the fall. But in it, you chose to have joy."
Many of them have been able to find that joy, in some of the smallest places.
One student says, "Two weeks before it happened I said Anabel, what would happen, god forbid, we died young. And she said, I want everyone to party. Or everyone just celebrate life because I'm going home."
Now, one year later, those who were affected by the bus crash are cherishing their blessings.
"Yes it was a tragedy, but it was one time in your life, it wasn't your whole life. I kind of use the analogy, I don't want to focus on the manure that I've been drug through, but rather focus on riding the horse for the rest of my life," Ford says.
November 4, 2011, a bus carrying students and faculty from the ACU Agriculture Department flipped, sending over a dozen to area hospitals, and killing one.
ACU's Friday chapel was dedicated to the memorial of Anabel Reid, and it brought on mixed emotions.
"On the one hand, I don't want to remember that time. On the other hand though, I'm simply amazed at god's work in it all," says ACU Dean of Students,Jean-Noel Thompson.
Throughout the memorial service, songs were sung, prayers were read, and for the first time, victims publicly share their account of a day they will never forget.
One student describes, "My first thought was we really need to get back on the road, we're going to be late to Medina, and then I realized we weren't going to be going to Medina."
They also shared their perspective on life, after their life-changing experience.
Merissa Ford adds, "You're going to go through some awful times, like that's part of life, that's part of being human, that's part of the fall. But in it, you chose to have joy."
Many of them have been able to find that joy, in some of the smallest places.
One student says, "Two weeks before it happened I said Anabel, what would happen, god forbid, we died young. And she said, I want everyone to party. Or everyone just celebrate life because I'm going home."
Now, one year later, those who were affected by the bus crash are cherishing their blessings.
"Yes it was a tragedy, but it was one time in your life, it wasn't your whole life. I kind of use the analogy, I don't want to focus on the manure that I've been drug through, but rather focus on riding the horse for the rest of my life," Ford says.
