November 30th

5 C Some cloud or maybe fog but the sun is shining through.
Spent most of the day in Victoria, home for supper though.
Computer is now home again, works better but still one problem which I hope I can fix.

Was able to get a bit more done on the story of Sterling. Hope it is enough for today's entry. Had a visitor from Colombia to the site yesterday. Buenas Dias.

I was just about to find out what they were all about.

When we were about a hundred meters from the 260 marker he cautioned me to slow right down to a crawl then as we came up to a spot where some small trees were broken and crushed and there was some broken glass on the highway shoulder, he said, “Here stop! This is it.” I stopped and he jumped out of the truck and started searching in the ditch.

“What are you looking for?” I asked.

“This is where I had my accident and I am still missing my old pocket knife, it may be around here.”

I started to help him look and asked, “Accident? When did you have an accident.”

“Oh last fall, I thought you probably knew.”

“No sorry, this is the first I’ve heard. What happened?”

He said, “Let’s head up to Summit and I’ll tell you over lunch.”

We looked for a few more minutes then got back in the truck and proceeded on to Summit Lake.

We both ordered hamburgers and he told me the story of the accident.

He had come up to Fort Nelson after the previous summer’s Assistant had left, he had driven on to Muncho Lake the scene of a very large fire of that summer. He was on his way back to Fort Nelson to spend the night when an on coming car had crossed over into his lane and in spite of swerving to avoid the other car, Sterling was hit just behind the driver’s door and his car rolled about three times coming to rest on it’s roof. He was thrown clear during one of the rolls. He had no real recollection of what happened over the next few hours. There was a radio telephone at Summit Lake, so he presumed someone had reported the accident from there. He did recall someone – a woman standing nearby saying ‘they sure get those crosses up quickly.’ (The accident had occurred at the site of a previous accident where two people had been killed.)

He had received extensive injuries; broken pelvis, broken arm and dislocated shoulder. His head area and upper body had been quite badly lacerated from broken glass and the effects of being tossed out onto the ground. He was still getting blackouts and would sometimes pass out for periods of up to an hour.

An ambulance had eventually arrived and he was hauled to the Fort Nelson hospital then at some point was air ambulanced to Edmonton. He remained in the hospital for several weeks and was still being checked regularly. He had been on one of those visits when I had arrived in Fort St. John.