Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Tragic accidents can happen to anyone at any time, and it's an insane thing to comprehend. Hi, everyone. My name is Sophie, and welcome to the Stronger with Sophie podcast. I'm here with my dad, Jimmy, and my little sister Allie. Hello. Ali has a comeback story, and it all starts about. When was it?
Two years ago. Yeah. So tell us what happened.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Basically, I got in a golf cart accident with my sister Mia, and then my best friend Ensley. And it was in the neighborhood of, like, Ensley.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: It was Ensley's neighborhood. Yeah.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: So we were just riding around and having fun, and then we decided that Mia was gonna drive, which wasn't allowed at all.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: First of all, it wasn't your mom and I. Oh, by the way, this is also my daughter Alyssa. And so my daughter Sophie, and my daughter Alys, and Alyssa and Mia had been told they can't drive golf carts because they had an issue with a golf cart where they were unsafe. Right. You remember this?
[00:01:08] Speaker B: Yeah, very.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Right.
[00:01:09] Speaker C: And so they were on restriction. No golf carts.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: No golf carts.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: As teenagers. As teenagers do you know, they, you know, break a few rules. So just for fun.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Yeah. We wrote the rules and Mia started driving. And then at a point, we were about to take a turn, and we decided, like, it was a last minute decision on his behalf. And she was like, straight or turn? Straight or turn? And then she ends up turning, and full foot on the gas. Did not hit the brakes at all. And we end up tipping. And I fly out the bar, hits my head. I hit the grass, and it was the whole thing. And then I ended up.
[00:01:47] Speaker C: That is crazy. Let's put this in perspective here.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:51] Speaker C: The entire golf cart flips over.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: It tips.
[00:01:55] Speaker C: It tips over.
And then. Did you land face down or with your back on the ground?
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Face down.
[00:02:03] Speaker C: Face down. And then the back of the. And then the golf cart landed. Landed on your. On the back of your hand.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: It had no seat belts, which is obviously very dangerous. And so I flew out halfway, and then the pole ended up on my head and I slam into the ground.
And after laying there for, like, a second or two, because I didn't lose consciousness, I was just awake the whole time.
I ended up, like, realizing that it was on me. And we start screaming, and everybody's like, oh, my gosh, is everyone okay? Are we okay? And I'm like, the golf cart.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: You're just laying.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: The golf cart's on me. And so I end up having them, like, hold it up a little bit or try to, because obviously it's a golf cart.
[00:02:44] Speaker C: So you're literally on the ground, face down, with the golf cart on you, and they had to lift it up
[00:02:50] Speaker B: off of you, basically. But I also, like, myself pushed off and crawled.
[00:02:55] Speaker C: Oh, my God.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
That's crazy. So me and my dad were. We were in the neighborhood, and we were at our neighbors. Or not our neighbors, the house. The Harold's house. Right. And we're watching some football game or something. I might be out and about, and I think I might have been on some, like, electric scooter with my friends. And I had no clue. Clue any of this was happening. I had no clue that you guys even went on the golf cart and not even that Mia was driving the golf cart, which. How old were you guys? You guys are like, 13, 14, 13.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: I don't even remember. So long ago.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: And so, I mean, that's. That's crazy, because you're not even learning. You're not even beginning to learn how to drive at that point.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: No, I think I was 14. Because at the time, my. You and mom were always like, we gotta wait until you're 14, because that's.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Oh, it was right before you turn
[00:03:46] Speaker B: 14, you're gonna be driving and stuff like that. So it was. Yeah, I think it was right before because dad was being.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: It was that November, I think, or September or something.
[00:03:56] Speaker C: So then they pulled you up, and then everybody's freaking out. And what you didn't realize at the
[00:04:02] Speaker B: time, I didn't even. I didn't even stand up. I just crawled out, laid on the ground. And then everybody's like, are you hurt? Anybody hurt? Is everyone okay? Like.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: Or whatever.
[00:04:11] Speaker B: And then I reach up and I feel my face, because I felt tingling of some sort. And then I feel it, and I, like, look at my hand. There's blood. And I realized that I was hurt. I realized that I was, like, not okay. And then I was like, y', all, I'm not good. And obviously, at this point, I'm crying. Like, everything's going through my brain. I just got in an accident. I have no idea what I'm gonna do. Like, my looks can be changed for forever. I don't know how anything's gonna happen.
[00:04:41] Speaker C: So before you go with that, I think it's important to highlight that you didn't just have a little scratch.
[00:04:49] Speaker A: Oh, it was not little.
[00:04:51] Speaker C: When I pulled up, I. Because I was sitting there with my buddies watching football.
And then. And I was in the neighborhood. And then when I pulled up and ran up to you, you honestly look like the Elephant Man. And I know that we're.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: Let's.
[00:05:06] Speaker C: Let's. Let's go ahead and put up.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: That's not funny.
[00:05:08] Speaker C: We're gonna put up a picture of how you looked, but you had. You were swollen. Your whole eye was swollen. It was bloody. It was. You didn't even look like the same person.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: I didn't look like myself.
[00:05:20] Speaker C: And I got to tell you, Ali, that was one of the scariest moments of my life. I've had one other horribly scary moment in my life, and it involved Mia. And it was. It was. I just.
I thought first. First thing that I thought was, how is her brain?
[00:05:38] Speaker B: Right, Right.
[00:05:39] Speaker C: Because you. You also had a huge gash in the back of your head.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:43] Speaker C: Which is probably, I guess, where the bar was.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't think we even figured that out until we got to the hospital. And I was laying on the pillow, and there was blood on the pillow.
[00:05:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: And so that was also another insane part. But the story of how we called you was I was telling them to, like, run to doors. Like, call somebody, call 91 1.
[00:06:02] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Like, I needed help, and I was not in, Like. I was in fight mode, not flight mode. So I was just. I was like, somebody get me help. Go to doors. And obviously, me.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: And that's smart on your part, right?
[00:06:15] Speaker B: Yeah, obviously, me and Ensley were, like, not knowing what to do.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: They were just freaking out.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Never been in this situation before. They were just freaking out at that point. Like, I would have done the same. I can't blame them for any of that. But, yeah, eventually we figured out that we have our phones and they called you, and I think it was either. Either you or Mom. I forget which one.
[00:06:35] Speaker C: And I remember running up to you and just picking you up and then taking you to. I can't. I think it was Mr. Paul's truck.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:44] Speaker C: And then we just went straight to the hospital.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
As soon as you. We got in the car, I remember you, like, holding me for, like, the whole car ride, because I was like. My body felt like it was burning. I was telling you that the whole time. And I was also asking how Inslee and Mia were, if they were okay. I just remember, like, trying to see if they were.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: Was what was, like, going through your head.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: The whole thing. I was just like, oh, my gosh. That just happened. Like, we shouldn't have done that. Me, I should have never drove.
[00:07:13] Speaker C: You're feeling guilty.
[00:07:14] Speaker B: I was feeling guilty, yeah. I was feeling a lot of guilt for the way that we went about the situation. But I also just was feeling scared, like, about what happened to me. Like, I had no idea what the extent of my injuries were.
[00:07:26] Speaker C: When did you first see your face?
[00:07:29] Speaker B: So I actually didn't see my face until we got to the. Like, at the end of the hospital appointment, I think. Or I don't remember seeing it because I was sleepy, and I was all. Like, all the medicine was in my system, and so I didn't really know what I looked like.
But I remember that Mia took a picture of me at the accident, which I asked her to do, because I touched my eyebrow and I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, take a picture, take a picture, take a picture.
I want to know what I look like. How do I look? But I never ended up seeing that photo until after.
[00:08:03] Speaker C: Until later. You didn't see until later? She probably did not want you to see it.
[00:08:07] Speaker B: Yeah, she was worried about so bad about how.
[00:08:11] Speaker C: And then. And then tell us what happened after you went to the hospital.
And then after you went to the hospital and you got released, and then finally you had an opportunity to look at your face and what. How did. What. What was going through your head when
[00:08:25] Speaker B: you saw it was pretty much, I'm never going to look normal again. I'll have these scars forever. I'm just going to have to end up, like, looking. Well, I don't want to say ugly, but I just want to. Like, that was going through my brain.
[00:08:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: I was like, I'm never going to look the same. Like, I don't feel like I ever will, like, be the same and I don't know. And, like, same with my emotional, like, self. Like, I never thought that I would get over the accident.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Yeah, right. Can I interrupt you for a second? I want to talk about, from my perspective, what was happening a little bit. Just from, you know, your older sister.
I. I mean, I obviously care for you and Mia so much. And that night, finding out that you had just gotten hurt, I mean, okay, so it was backtrack a little bit. It was insane. So I get back to the house, right? And I get a phone call from mom. And I'm already, you know, about to walk into the house.
And mom goes, your sister's really hurt.
We're taking her to the hospital.
Stay here with your other sister and check on your other sister and Ensley. And I'm just like, oh, my gosh. Okay. I thought that it was just maybe a leg injury or maybe you, like, broke your arm or something. I thought that that's what I was thinking in the Moment. And so I walk into the house, the Harold's house, where we were, you know, watching the football game and where everybody was hanging out, and Mia is sobbing. Mia is her twin sister, the one who was driving.
[00:10:00] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: And Mia is sobbing, Ensley is sobbing. And they're scared. They're both. You know, they. They both look frightened. And so I just ask them what happened. And Mia shows me the photo of you, Ling. So I saw you before you saw yourself.
And I started sobbing myself.
I was worried about you. I thought that you were on your deathbed. Cause I didn't know any details. They said that the golf cart was on top of you. They said that there was a sharp turn and it completely tipped over.
And, I mean, all I could think about was I didn't even get to say goodbye to my sister. That's what I was thinking in the moment. So we were scared, too. I was scared, scared to death.
And so I kept calling mom all night. How is she? Have we heard anything?
And you know what I heard? When you guys got back from the hospital, mom told me, I think you were tired. And I went and talked to mom because I had just gotten done seeing you.
And she goes, the nurse told me that she had an angel on her shoulder that night.
And I think that's a really big part of the story, because you were inches away from hitting a spot on your head where that could have been a very fatal injury.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: I had a massive grass in the back of my head. Yeah, you did, insanely. It was deep. It was close to my skull, I think.
But it was a clean cut. I couldn't have asked for a better cut that was so deep.
[00:11:43] Speaker C: That's exactly what the nurse said.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. It was. It was deep and it was clean. Like, there was nothing. No debris in there, nothing harmful. And I just couldn't have prayed for anything better.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:55] Speaker C: So how.
So this is about Comeback Stories. This podcast about Comeback Stories. So tell us about what happened afterwards. How did you overcome all the challenges that were presented by this?
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Obviously, I was, like, struggling to. Because it's so hard to, like, get hurt and then look the way I looked and then have the emotional thing of being like, oh, wow, like, I'm, like, hurting. My body's weak. Like, all this stuff happened because of the accident.
And I think how I got through it was really just God. Like, I. Honestly, my faith grew so much from being in the accident just because I was able to, like, get closer to God because of the way I was praying and just the way he Saved you the way he saved me. The angel on my shoulder. Honestly, that's exactly what made me, like, grow and, like, be able to come back from that story.
[00:12:52] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: So. Because when we were in the hospital, I even asked mom to pray. I was just like, there's multiple things going through my head. Like, I just went through accident, and one thing that I wanted to do is pray about it and just, like, get closer to God and.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: And the way that you healed. You healed.
[00:13:13] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: Look at.
[00:13:15] Speaker C: I mean, look at this face.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: Look at her face.
[00:13:17] Speaker C: Unbelievable. I mean, it's perfect. It's perfect. It's gorgeous.
[00:13:21] Speaker A: It is. And you wouldn't even be able to believe that two years ago, it was scarred all over the place. Her eyebrow. Completely.
[00:13:30] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:31] Speaker A: You know, just.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: And honestly, it took no time to heal. I feel like.
[00:13:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: I mean, like. Yeah, right? It took, like, four days for it to look even better. Like, all the gunk to be off of it. And then obviously, I, like, it was still red for a little. And I had no eyebrow. And I still, like. I still have a little cut that. Where I have little war. No eyebrow hairs.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Battle scars.
Yeah.
[00:13:56] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: Honestly, compared to, like, how I.
[00:13:58] Speaker C: How it could have been, it was.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: It was insane.
[00:14:01] Speaker C: I mean, it is absolutely incredible how well you heal.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And so, like, growing closer to God, that's an amazing way to come back from this. And so how do you think that you're applying this to your daily life? And how do you think that you're going to apply it to your life in the future?
[00:14:17] Speaker B: I think it's just, like, being bubbly and, like, happy as much as I can be. Because you want to live your life to the fullest. Because that's another lesson I learned from the golf cart crash because, like, obviously I was very hurt. Didn't know how it was gonna go. Didn't know if I was gonna die even.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: It could be over in a second, right?
[00:14:38] Speaker B: Anytime. It could have been like, they saw something. But in reality, I was even more hurt than I did.
Bad. Like brain bleed or something like that. I don't even know. But I just. I just want to live life to the fullest. For my life, because. And be bubbly and let others know.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Like, be happy that you're alive.
[00:14:57] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: Let others know that life is so worth living. And especially now that I have found God and have grown my relationships with Jesus, I definitely want to be living life like that. And I want to live life like I'm supposed to be.
[00:15:13] Speaker C: I think that is so Beautiful.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: That's amazing.
[00:15:15] Speaker C: One of the things that I think comes from tragedies a lot of times that I see as a personal injury lawyer is that people realize that life is short and it can turn on a dime, and at any time, a tragic accident can happen, and your life could be over just like that.
And so one of the takeaways that I see with a lot of my clients is to seize the day every single day. Enjoy it. Enjoy it. Take everything that it has in. And mostly.
Mostly when it. When somebody. The best way to seize the day is to really value the relationships of the people that you love and to really, really same with that.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: I feel like since then, my relationships with Sophie and Mia have grown.
With you and Mom, I feel like it's just, like, been. Everything in my life has gone uphill since the accident, and it.
It's all due to the fact that I realized that life is worth living and that, like, I'm lucky to be here.
Everyone's lucky to be here on earth and be able to live life and love others and be with others every day. So that's definitely the biggest lesson I ever learned.
[00:16:32] Speaker C: So I think another lesson that I hope that you took from it is that the challenges that we face in life, they can be overcome.
They can be overcome with faith, with persistence, with. Sometimes it's with hard work.
Sometimes it's just with patience. Like, in your case, you just had to wait for your body to heal. You had to wait for your face to heal and come back to be as gorgeous as you are today.
So I think that's a big deal.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it's huge.
[00:17:08] Speaker C: Huge.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: Especially since I do cheerleading. Yeah, I do competitive cheer, if I'm sure a lot of people know that. But I do competitive cheer, and that's a big deal in my life. I do it every day, honestly. And then being hurt and having to, like, come back to cheerleading has been so hard. Like, I have a back injury, and we still don't know if that was from the accident or from, like, overuse, but. But I think that the accident did contribute to it.
[00:17:39] Speaker C: I'm sure it did.
[00:17:40] Speaker B: And then. Yeah. So I just have to keep overcoming that. I'm going to physical therapy now for my back. And, I mean, it was a huge bump in the road, but I've gotten so far from there, just, like, with body health and emotional health and all of that.
[00:17:59] Speaker C: You want to know how I have come back stronger from you getting hurt?
[00:18:03] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:18:04] Speaker C: It makes me incredibly grateful every single day that you. That I have you as my daughter, I'm gonna get choked up. But. But I'm dead serious. I can't even tell you how scary it was for me. And just the thought, not just of that I could have lost you, but also that you could have lost some of your, like, your brain power and your future, because my hopes and dreams are caught up in you. I want you to have the best, most amazing life. And so it was.
But it. But. But just the gratitude that I feel for the fact that you have healed so well and the fact that I have you every single day, and it's, you know, it's amazing.
What about you, Sophie? How do you feel? Like you came back stronger from Ali's.
[00:18:52] Speaker A: I mean, I think similar to Ali. I just.
My faith in God is, you know, stronger than it ever was before. That situation, when mom told me that, that was when I realized, yeah, he's real.
[00:19:08] Speaker C: Yeah, he's.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: He's definitely real. Because my little sister, I don't want to get choked up, but my little sister, my baby sister, who I have watched grow up from the moment she was born, she. I mean, it's insane. He saved you.
And I could not be more grateful. And it made me realize how much. I mean, obviously, I know I love you unconditionally, so I love our entire family unconditionally. But it just made me realize what that actually means.
[00:19:43] Speaker C: It is absolutely incredible.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:45] Speaker C: Is a 2,000 pound. I don't know how much a golf cart weighs, but a several thousand pounds golf cart is literally lands on your head and you come out of it now basically unscathed.
That is unbelievable.
Well, if anything is going to give you faith, that is right. And I know. You know, it's fascinating is I noticed that after the incident, you girls really started to get more reading. Reading the Bible, being more religious, going to wanting. You've been adamant about going to church.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: I go to church every Wednesday.
[00:20:25] Speaker C: I try to go every Sunday.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: It depends on scheduling, but every Wednesday for youth.
[00:20:31] Speaker A: And not only that, but we spend so much time together now. I make it a point to invite you and Mia everywhere that I go.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: Basically.
[00:20:42] Speaker C: You do. You're three peas in a pod, for sure.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: Me and Sephora, my best friends, everyone's
[00:20:47] Speaker A: always so jealous of our little. Of our friendship.
And it's, you know, it really. It just goes to show how much that that situation had an impact on the way that we view each other and the way that we, you know, act with each other. And so I'm really glad. I mean, obviously, I hate that you had to go through that. But I'm really glad that we had something that was able to bring us closer together and bring us closer to God. Yes.
[00:21:17] Speaker B: At that point we were like, not as close at all. Like.
[00:21:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: I think it was so hard to, like, hang out because you were older.
[00:21:25] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. The transition was real. I mean, it was a very distinct transition. It's almost like impossible to miss how, you know, how little we used to hang out versus now.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: I feel like I'm so grateful for the way that you've been inviting both me and Mia to almost everything and her friends have really become.
[00:21:47] Speaker C: That is awesome. Alright, you guys want to wrap it up?
[00:21:50] Speaker A: I think that's an amazing opportunity. Ali, I'm really glad that we got you to share your story.
[00:21:55] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: And I'm just really proud that you have grown from that situation and that you have overcome it and that you've grown closer to God and closer with me and Mia. I think it's an amazing thing for our family and. And yeah. So make sure you guys tune in on all of our future episodes. We're on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, all of your other podcast streaming platforms. We hope to see you all later. Bye.
