Detours sometimes take us to a place we might never have explored.

35 years ago today, probably right around this same time, 11:30 EST, I was driving in a carpool with 5 other people in a Hornet. We were on our way home from Swift Creek Mill Playhouse in Colonial Heights where we had just performed "Teahouse of the August Moon." I was 11 years old, the youngest in the car. We were traveling down Leigh Street. As we entered the intersection of Leigh and Belvidere, I remember hearing brakes screeching, a sound I still hate to this day, and glass breaking and then we were stopped. I looked to my left at Ed, someone who would turn out to be one of my closest friends. He had blood all over his face. It then dawned on me that we must have been in an accident. I made some comment about the blood. He told me it was mine. I didn't understand. I wasn't in any pain. I didn't remember being cut. My forehead itched a little. I reached up to scratch it, and instead of feeling my fingernail on my skin, my fingers went in, and then the blood began to flow instantly, the way water runs down your face when you rinse your hair in the shower. I couldn't see anything, and I started to panic. "I can't see!," I said, and Ed told me I was alright. I was cut pretty bad, but I was going to be fine. Someone came over to the car and wrapped a sheet around my head to try and stop the bleeding. I knew I was going to have to go to the hospital. I had never been to the hospital. Here I was, an 11 year old girl in downtown Richmond at 11:30 PM without her parents getting ready to ride in an ambulance to MCV hospital. Ed told me he would ride with me. What followed was a lot of noise as they attempted to cut us out of the car. They gave us some kind of cloth to cover ourselves as they broke what glass was left out of the windows. I could hear all kinds of voices and the crunch of metal. Through it all, Ed kept me calm. He rode with me to the ER. He only left me when they made him. I was being wheeled on the gurney through the doors of the ER. They asked Ed if he was my father. When he answered no, he was told he couldn't come any further. I will spare you the details of everything that happened in the next several hours. I ended up having surgery at 4AM to piece together what was left of the upper half of my face. My forehead was cut all the way to my skull, my nose all the way to my cartilage, and my right eyelid was torn almost in half. The reason I felt no pain in the actual accident was that all my nerves had been severed. I came out of that surgery with over 100 stitches in my face.
You see, when we went through that intersection, a drunk driver ran the stop sign at Belvidere and plowed into us on my side throwing my head into the back passenger window.
Right now, you may be asking why I shared this today. Mostly because despite what happened 35 years ago and in some cases because of what happened, I AM SO BLESSED. Ed was there for me that night, and visited me in the hospital every day until I was released. We are still close friends, and we share a really special bond that began that night. Going through my pre-teen and teen years with major scars covering my face taught me to be tough and strong. It taught me to let people see what was inside so they could get past what was outside. 8 years of plastic surgery every 6 months taught me patience and how to deal with pain and maybe in some ways prepared me for not only physical but emotional pain that I would have to deal with much later in my adult life.
I posted a picture of myself that my daughter took. It isn't airbrushed to remove anything. That's exactly the way I look today. Most people say they can't see the scars. Of course, I still can because I know they are there, but I have still been able to do what that 11 year old dreamed of doing in spite of what happened. I have modeled and worked in film and I have been working as an actress consistently all through my life. I believe most of that is because of who I am inside, a part of me I may not have nurtured had it not been for that major detour in life 35 years ago.