Welcome to the Rocky Mountain Sunshine podcast where we share faith, have some fun, and strive to add a little sunshine to your day! I am your host, Jason Bringhurst.
Welcome, everybody! I am recording from the lovely town of Port Angeles, Washington where there is beauty all around. My daughter Camille turned 12 yesterday and had dinner up at Lake Crescent, and it was just absolutely beautiful.
Well, today I talk about an accident that happened in Sandy, Utah that changed the lives of many people.
So, let’s get to it.
Did you have any major events in your life as a teenager?
I have had a few. I have thought about one event, in particular, many times.
I had a group of friends in my Sandy neighborhood. I was friends with them all. There was one friend who was probably the tallest of us all. We were good friends. Not best friends, but part of our neighborhood group of friends. We were in the same ward. We went to the same school, though they were all 1 year younger than me. We did scouting together. In fact my first scout camp we camped in a tent together. He gave me string cheese for the first time. He was good at scouting. We played basketball. He was much taller than I was. We even got into a bike race once where I crashed. He came down to my house and would hang out and I went to his house and would hang out. His mom and family were always nice to me.
In 1986 my friends Brent and Cameron were helping move someone in the ward. They turned from 1300 E to Creek rd and it threw them out of the back of the truck with the load. Brent broke both wrists and his ankle. Cameron landed on his head and sustained major head trauma. He was life-flighted to either the U of U probably Primary Childrens which is right there. His younger sister Tammy was babysitting at the time for a neighbor. Her grandmother was at their house and got the news first. Her grandmother notified her and her parents. It was on Cameron’s older sister’s birthday.
Life for Cameron seemed to stop for him in his mind. He never moved on from being a 14-15 year old. When we got our driver's licenses he kept thinking that he was going to get his soon, even years later. His short-term memory was really non-existent.
Some effects that I didn’t know about that Tammy shared with me was how everything became about Cameron. In the ward, in the family, etc. It was like she didn’t exist. She went from being 13 to having to be responsible for herself because all the time went to taking care of Cameron. She grew tired of all the pity from everyone. She was her own person. Her mom had a hard time moving on too. She not only lost the brother she knew, but she also lost a lot of her mom. She had to grow up fast.
