On January 11, 2014, I am working at a trade show when I receive a call. It’s really loud and I can’t quite understand what is being said. Someone is trying to tell me Paul has been in a car accident. He hands his phone over to Paul and Paul doesn’t know where he is and I hear a lot of pain in Paul’s voice.

The Good Samaritan tells me he was the first on the scene, and because Paul was so cold he has him sitting in his car to warm up. They are waiting for an ambulance but he has no idea how long it will take emergency services to arrive at the location. I am advised to drive to the scene of the accident.

We arrive to find Paul’s destroyed Ford Escape. Paul is not there and has been taken via ambulance to the hospital. Seeing Paul’s car, I assumed the worst. Thankfully, my father was driving me and he could hardly keep it together as seeing the wreckage you can’t help but assume Paul is NOT going to be OK.

You see, Paul’s vehicle was stopped as he waited to turn left from one secondary highway to another. He was rear ended at 100/km per hour. It was Paul’s first day back to work after we took some time off with our family over the Christmas holidays and to celebrate our youngest daughter’s 1st birthday in Banff.

We arrive at the hospital and Paul’s in a crazy amount of pain with a large cut on the back of his head that no one seems to be all that concerned about. (He still sports the scar.) Hours later, Paul is transferred to the Red Deer hospital with a ruptured spleen and internal bleeding.

Paul’s seems to be recovering well, besides being quarantined in the hospital with Pneumonia. We believe everything is going to back to normal and that this is just going to be a small hiccup.

Paul collapses at the hospital a week after the accident. He is bleeding internally and near death and he needs emergency surgery and blood transfusions. His recovery begins all over again.

Paul was totally disabled and unable to work for 4 months. I am forever grateful that Paul had purchased Hospitalization and Disability Insurance policies for our family. Without this protection and the financial support offered we surely would have lost our home to foreclosure.

It took Paul a full 2 years to recover with many trips to the Red Deer hospital rehab center, appointments with doctors and specialists. In fact, many doctors told Paul perhaps he shouldn’t even be working at all. But that isn’t how Paul operates. There is no way he wouldn’t look after his family, his 5 girls.

On top of all the internal injuries, Paul suffered a Brain Injury. This would have been a life-changing accident for anyone, except this wasn’t Paul’s first major car accident…