Valdez Family

New Mexico Ambulance (rockymountainemsambulance.com)

Till this day, we have not figured out how I managed to get out. The trucks had landed upside down and, still inside were my parents and my uncle. Since my brother and sister were in the camper, and the camper was completely destroyed, they had landed on the side of the road. I landed on the opposite side of the dirt road with a bloody nose.

I don’t have a hero in my life, I have heroes and they are a family who helped us through a really hard part of life. My family and I were traveling to a wedding in Mexico, and on our way there we got into a horrifying accident. My dad had lost control of the truck and because we had been going at a very fast speed the truck flipped over and spun several times. Once it stopped it was upside down. I was in the truck for a very long time and I didn’t know how to get out. It is very blurry to me exactly what I saw or did, but somehow I got out. Once I did I saw that many cars had stopped to help us and my sister and brother had been helped. A quick minute later, the ambulance and firefighters came to our rescue. I saw that the ambulance sign said New Mexico so I guessed we were stranded in New Mexico for a while. As they helped us we saw that my uncle had gotten out and we noticed his pants were full of blood. He told us he was fine, but the blood was from my dad's head. Somehow my dad had cut open his head and was bleeding a lot. My mom and dad were still in the truck and they needed to use the Jaws of Life in order to get my mom out. Later they got my dad out and we were all taken to the hospital.

That same day my sister, my brother, uncle and I were released from the hospital. We were not familiar with New Mexico, let alone having a place to go, so we asked one of the nurses where a nearby motel was and she was kind enough to drive us to one. Once we were there my uncle and my sister went to a fast food restaurant to get something to eat. Since we didn’t have a lot of money to spare we needed to find somewhere cheaper to stay at than the motel, so my uncle began to ask around if anybody had a house to rent or something. The night came by and it was time to go to sleep, but we were stopped by a knock on the door. It was a family that was there to tell us that they wanted to help us out. They had told us that someone had mentioned to their family that we needed help and they were willing to let us stay in their house for as long as we needed. We were so thankful and took their offer. The next day we went to pick up my mom and dad from the hospital and went to the family’s house. Once we were there they told us that we could count on them and they bought us food. They must have had so much trust towards us for lending us their house for over a month without even knowing us. We were there for Christmas and they bought presents for my whole family. When we were stable we left for home and thanked them for everything they had done for us. We traded each other's numbers and promised to keep in touch. On our way home all I could think about was everything that had happened. I didn’t know what I would have done if things would have gone worse than what they were. But thank God they didn’t.

The Valdez Family has inspired me to be an unselfish person and very caring. My family and I have a lot of respect towards them and that shows me that when you make good actions you get respected.

Till this day I am very thankful for the family. If it wasn’t for their willingness to help us, my family and I would have had a hard time. Because of them I believe in heroes and I owe my life to them. For these reasons they are and will always be my heroes.