March 15th 2008. That day will always be etched in our
memory as the day our lives were forever
changed. The day before we went to Doughnuts for Dads at the
school as a family and then we went to the middle school to withdraw Brianna from 8th grade so we could homeschool her.
March 15th was a typical Saturday around the Conrad house. The kids were watching movies while I started getting Brianna's lessons ready. Brian decided to go riding with his
buddies Jason, Wes and Brian and his son Kyle. I was not real happy that the "boys" decided to go riding without me. I had only been
riding once since I had Quinton and I let Brian know I wasn't happy I was getting ditched. We had dinner plans at 4pm that night at Red Lobster so I told him he had better be back in time to shower. (The guys are
notorious for showing up late with some lame excuse).
I was getting the kids
pizza out of the oven when Jason called. He sounded very serious when he said that "Brian was clipped by a train." I didn't really understand because they hadn't been gone very long. I thought it was a joke but If you know Jason he
jokes around but not about serious stuff. So I kept telling him that he better be lying. He said I'm serious and I disagreed a couple of times before I heard the
Ambulance. As soon as I heard the ambulance I knew he wasn't joking. He told me where they were and I got off the phone. Everything after that was in Fast forward- slow motion. I told the kids daddy crashed his
dirt bike so we were leaving. Brianna got the
baby ready, I grabbed the diaper bag and I called my friend Ashlie and told her I was dropping the kids off because Brian was hurt.
When I got to Ashlie's house I repeated what Jason had said. She said her husband Kyle was going with me. He offered to drive but since it was Brian's company vehicle I told him he couldn't and besides I was still pretty calm. We drove to
Vader, which was only 15-20 minutes away, but man was that a slow ride. If it wasn't for all those curves in the road I would have been going 80. We got their to find Brian H. and his wife and 2 kids standing their along with Stacie, Jason and Wes. I was a little under dressed for the event. I hadn't brushed my hair or teeth yet. I was wearing my paint
covered sweats, work shoes and of course I had no bra on. Since I usually have something funny to say especially in
awkward moments,I told them If I would have known everyone was going to be waiting for me I would have dressed up. I thought I would get at least a chuckle but everyone just stared at me with a solemn faces.
Brian was pretty far back on the fire road so Wes offered to ride me back on his
quad to where the
medics were. As we road back the ambulance passed us and Brian H. was riding on the side since he is a volunteer medic. Wes and I continued
riding back so he could show me where it happened and give me more details.
So after talking to Wes, Jason and
listening to Brian retell the event of that day i have come up with a fairly accurate description of the event. They got on their dirt bikes and quads at
Brian H's house,
rode across and headed down the fire road that ran
parallel with the train tracks. Brian H and his son Kyle went right across the train trestle without looking back. Jason had a really
bad feeling about going on or near the tracks so Wes and Brian
decided they would just wait with Jason until Brian H. and Kyle came back. After waiting about 5 minutes Brian decided he would go across and tell them to come back. They wanted to find a
different way to get to the other side of the creek. So off he went. He rode over, told Brian H. they needed to find a different way across for the other guys and then they rode back across to where Jason and Wes were.
Brian H. sent his son
around a different way and then went back across the tracks first with Brian following him. According to Brian He started his bike back up and hopped on the tracks without looking. A few seconds later he heard the train looked back and was hit and thrown down the embankment about 30 feet. He landed with his head
downhill and blood from his broken nose started to roll down into his eyes and make it hard to see. He couldn't feel his legs at all and he said him arm felt broken. He kept repeating his name over and over so that he wouldn't lose c
onsciousness. He was awake and alert until he was on the ambulance and then he passed out.
This is the last time I went riding. We went to Tahuya with some friends and his brother Aaron who was visiting for the first time from California. About a mile down the trail his brother crashed the quad and the tire came off the rim. It was alot of fun watching Brian use a rock like a cave man to bend the rim back in place. He was always so good at figuring out how to fix anything.
