Chosen To Live by Jerry Schemmel
Excerpts
There seemed to be little choice, so I headed toward the hallway. But after just a few steps something distracted me. It was a solemn voice that caught my ear and the flash of a TV monitor that caught my eye. The television sat on a shelf at another end of the large room, and suddenly the announcer’s words began to register. He was talking about the plane crash.
I felt irresistibly drawn to the screen, where six or seven other people already stood watching. Seconds later, I saw what I supposed was a segment of news video that showed a large jetliner cruising toward a runway for what appeared to be a normal landing, only to begin a horrifying cartwheel that became a picture of smoke, fire and disintegration that, from all appearances, could not have left any survivors.
“What crash was that?” I said out loud, to no one in particular. There was a short silence, as if others around the TV couldn’t believe someone had actually asked the question.
“That was this crash – today,” someone finally blurted.
Though I suddenly felt foolish, the more overwhelming sensation that passed over me was one of shock. It simply didn’t seem possible that anyone could have emerged alive from the violent collision I’d just seen on videotape shot by a photographer from a Sioux City television station. The more I thought about it, the more I decided the man who’d answered me had to be mistaken. There was no way I could have come from that crash. There was no way anyone could have survived what I’d just seen. But then the tape was shown again, as it would be tens of thousands of times in the days, weeks and years ahead. And this time my mind was able to put the announcer’s voice in synch with what appeared on the screen.
“Here again is the tape of the terrifying plane crash that took place just a short time ago in Sioux City, Iowa…”
My jaw went slack and my mind went numb, except for the question that kept repeating itself, and would continue to repeat itself as if sheer repetition could elicit an answer that made any sense: How could anyone have survived?
