The North Carolina Mason

■ see GIFTS page 14 March/April 2020 The North Carolina Mason Page 11 By Don Barrier Derita #715 As Master of Wilkerson College #760, I was excited at the prospect of attending the North Carolina Masonic Symposium, which we have hosted for as long as I could remember. So, on June 7th, the day before the symposium, I loaded my car with all the necessary equip- ment and my suit and left my home in Charlotte to visit Worshipful Brother Ben Wallace's "Tractor Shed" to enjoy a great meal he was preparing for us. I looked forward to meeting our guest speakers, Brother Johnny Royal and Worshipful Brother Chuck Dunning, and enjoying the fellowship of my other brothers. It was rainy as I headed out of Asheboro toward Troy, second in a line of cars trailing a pickup that was driving 55 mph. I was singing to my radio when I turned my head for a second to look at a familiar logo on a passing. When I turned my eyes forward, I saw a black car between me and the pickup – driving the wrong direction. It hit me head-on at what the NCSHP estimated at 60 mph. at is when I received my first gift. As the car began to merge with mine, a shockwave hit my wind- shield. It exploded and the airbag deployed. Shards of glass floated toward me. e driver's side door window exploded. I watched my cell phone levitate from the console. I felt as if I was in a "Matrix" movie. en it got really bad. e black car tore through my car, shoving my transaxle through my floorboard. My left shin and foot were crushed, my pelvis was shat- tered and fractured in five places, and my left hip was displaced back four inches, fracturing two vertebrae. My right leg was shoved against the console, which was torn from its mounting bolts. As my car decelerated, the transaxle and the other vehicle tore away and spun down the road and my car began to spin. I was slung to the right, breaking two ribs on the seatbelt, the car rotating a full 450-degrees to stop off the shoulder. I looked around, then promptly passed out. I spent the next three weeks in the Trauma Surgical ICU; the first three days in unimaginable pain awaiting emergency surgery. Days after my third surgery – a 14-hour operation – I remember a lucid moment when I asked my doctor if I had hallucinated the accident and if what I saw was real. Without hesitation, he told me I had been given a gift called "memory packing," which gave me total recall beyond normal sight. I received other, profound "gifts" as the accident was happening. At one point, after the dash hit my stomach and before the terrible spin, all motion and time seemed to stop, and I heard a voice say, "You are not alone. You are loved. Have no fear." I can't explain this gift: I saw a "being" – non-corporeal and composed of light – sitting in the back seat. It was a being of light. I felt no fear because it felt kind, loving and nurturing. I lost consciousness about then. I cannot remember much of my first two weeks in the ICU; it's a blur of trauma, drugs and pain. Yet, I have memories of faces, including those of some of my Masonic brethren. How they got in the ICU, I don't know, but I am glad they did. My wife reminds me that one brother thoughtfully showed up on our front porch shortly after my From tragic accident comes three gifts Brethren rally to help injured brother accident with groceries for her and my daughter, who were making daily trips to the hospital. One brother drove 50 miles each way to retrieve my personal belongings from the wrecked car. My wife had collected all of the cards and letters from my brothers. I found them the other day – they stack up to more than eight inches tall. When I was able to receive phone calls, calls of support came in again and again. My brethren called my wife and daughter offering help and support. At the end of week three I was transferred to a rehab facility. My brothers visited me there in even greater numbers. One brother cooked meals and an OES sister made desserts; one brother gave me a TV antenna and another helped install it; one gave me a quad cane and a shower seat. Another bought me a special wheelchair seat designed to ease my injured pelvis and spine. ere were many other gifts of kindness including meals, books and maga- zines. One brought homemade peach ice cream and we attended Castle Island Virtual Lodge while I was still bedridden … imagine that. Over time I learned the true extent and severity of my injuries; fractures in the foot and ankle, compound fracture of the tibia in the shin, fractured femur, shattered hip socket and five fractures of the pelvis, two fractured vertebra, and two fractured ribs. In addition, my bowels, urinary tract and testicles had been crushed. I have lymphatic damage and nerve damage in my left leg. One brother cooked meals and an OES sister made desserts; one brother gave me a TV antenna and another helped install it; one gave me a quad cane and a shower seat.

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