I was a one-year-old, my brother was two, and our mother was 26. We had just picked up some Christmas gifts at a friend's house when a drunk man drove straight toward us and collided with our car. I was in the carseat on the passenger side and my brother was between me and my mom. When we hit, I was thrown to the floor. Nothing happened to my brother but my mother hit her head on the steering wheel and was unconscious. I'm not sure what happened to the man, but I know he didn't die.

It was three degrees below zero outside. When the ambulance arrived, EMTs had to cut off the roof to get us out. My mom was frozen. They didn't see me but, hearing me crying, found me. They rushed us to the hospital. I had a very big knot in my head. Afterwards they said that the wreck shocked me so much I didn't talk. When I finally started talking, I didn't talk correctly so they put me in speech therapy.

My mom was in a coma for three months. The doctors told us she would be a vegetable. When she finally came out of the coma, she tried to get us back from my dad (they are divorced). She went to classes to learn how to walk and do everything else again. And after she learned to walk, she succeeded in getting us back. She tried to get money from the guy who hit her and scarred her for life, but she never got a penny.

Today I look back and wonder what that guy is doing and if he ever thinks about what he did to us. It is a miracle my mother is here with us and able to walk. She is my best friend, my hero, and the person I admire most. I don't know what I would do without her in my life.