A young Indiana woman is recalling the tragic day three weeks ago when she gave birth to a healthy baby girl just hours after she was seriously injured and her husband killed in a car crash coming home from church.
Rebecca Sperry, 22, was nine months pregnant when she and her husband were rear-ended on an Indiana state highway. She told the Anderson Herald Bulletin Sunday that she and her 23-year-old husband Jesse were looking forward to being parents for the first time.
The accident happened April 6, the same day she was scheduled to have labor induced.
In the article, Sperry describes how her faith has sustained her as she rejoices in the birth of her daughter Autumn Marie and copes with the death of her high school sweetheart.
“I couldn’t do it without faith,” she said. “When I was having trouble at the hospital, the nurses were great. They recommended I read my Bible ... It gave me strength to go on. It reminded me that God has a purpose for us.”
The couple was rear-ended by a 2004 SUV going 92 mph on Indiana 32 between Anderson and Lapel. They were coming home from the Edgewood Baptist Church. Their Buick sedan flipped and slammed into a utility pole. Sperry told the Herald Bulletin that she held her husband as he took his last breath.
“It was a blessing to have that last moment with him,” she said. “I knew he had taken his last breath. I let myself relax and lose consciousness. I was thinking about the baby.”
Sperry suffered numerous injuries, including a torn uterus. A medical helicopter flew her to a hospital in Indianapolis where doctors performed an emergency Caesarean section.
She got to hold Autumn for the first time a week after the birth.
The motorist who hit them was an off-duty Edgewood police officer who was suspended and faces prosecution for allegedly causing the accident under the influence of drugs.
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