Counting their blessings: Iolans laud supporters after wreck

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January 11, 2018 - 12:00 AM

Bruce and Judy Cochran of Iola experienced the kindness of strangers just after Christmas when they lost their camper and most of their personal belongings in a rollover wreck just outside of Hamilton, Ala.
“So many angels,” Bruce said Wednesday of those helping hands.
 “We’ve got a lot of friends in Alabama now.”
The Cochrans left Iola the day after Christmas to meet friends in Florida. They planned to spend four months in the state’s warmer winter climate.
About 11 miles into Alabama, Judy was driving their Ford Excursion when a gust of wind whipped the back end of the RV across the highway. She couldn’t get the trailer back under control and knew she couldn’t avoid the crash.
She warned Bruce, “Here we go.” Then, she closed her eyes.
Bruce was on his cell phone, talking to his 90-year-old mother with the couple’s cat, Bo, at his feet. He held onto the phone and watched as the SUV rolled once, twice, three times. His right shoulder hit the ground, breaking bones. Dirt flew into the open window.
The Excursion came to rest on its roof. The Cochrans hung upside down, secured by their seatbelts. Their belongings had shifted and filled the space between them. They couldn’t see each other.
“Are you OK?” they asked each other. Bruce had broken his shoulder but otherwise was unharmed. Judy’s wrist was broken and her left side was badly bruised. Bits of the shattered windshield were tangled in her hair.
They called for their cat and heard his panicked meows. He somehow ended up underneath the car, between the ground and the hood, and was frightened but unharmed.
The first person to stop was an off-duty trauma nurse. She appeared at Judy’s window, assured her that help was on the way and promised to stay by her side.
Next, a youth pastor stopped. He perched next to Bruce and, after a failed attempt to extricate him from the wreckage, prayed with him.
The third “angel” came in the form of an off-duty EMT named Marcie. She managed to rescue Bo, the cat, and assured the Cochrans she would stay with the cat until she found a veterinarian to check him out.
Shea Scott, an EMT who has worked for the Hamilton ambulance service for 15 years, responded to the emergency call.
“We were expecting it to be worse,” Scott said. “It looked like a house exploded on the highway.”
At the emergency room of a hospital in Hamilton, Bo came for a visit. The Cochrans comforted the cat, who quickly became a star at the hospital.
“How many ERs would allow a cat to be brought into the hospital? But that’s what he needed,” Bruce said.
Local veterinarian Susan Rice examined the cat and kept him until family arrived. The vet refused payment for her services but when the Cochrans insisted they pay her something, she encouraged them to donate to an animal shelter instead.
The couple transferred to a hospital in Tupelo, Miss., which was better equipped to handle Bruce’s injuries. The couple’s daughter, Michelle Thompson, and granddaughter, Baylea Thompson, arrived at about 4 a.m. Their son, Ryan Cochran, and his fiancé, Kate Barnes, arrived soon after. They also have another son, Mike Cochran.
The next day, family members did their best to recover the couple’s belongings. At the scene, Ryan discovered an angel figurine sitting upright in the RV’s doorway. It reinforced the family’s belief that they’d been helped by “so many angels.”
Since their return to Iola, the couple has spent their time recovering and sorting through the remains of their belongings. Because they planned to spend four months away, they had packed a lot. All their clothes. All their Christmas presents. Some items were salvaged but much was lost.
And the angels keep coming. Family, friends, neighbors. They gathered firewood so Judy could enjoy a fire in the living room. They provided a lift recliner for Bruce. They brought meals. They offered rides and to run errands.
The family has kept in touch with some of the people they met in Alabama and Mississippi, including Scott who called to check on them as they were interviewed for this article.
“You could tell they were really good people,” Scott said. “They just needed somebody to be there to help them. You hope, no matter what town they ended up in, people will always be that way.”
The couple likely won’t spend the winter in Florida but they’re looking at all the positives. They just had their first great-grandson, so they’ll be able to spend time with him. Judy won’t have to miss some of her favorite concerts at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center, where she works. They both have aging mothers and it makes Judy nervous to be so far away during the winter.
“The first couple of days we were pretty grim over losing everything,” Judy said.
“By the third day, we were smiling,” Bruce added.
“Sometimes you get really down with mankind, especially with all the news these days,” Judy said “Then something like this happens that lifts your spirits. You’ve forgotten how good people can be.”

 

PHOTO: Bruce and Judy Cochran survived a rollover wreck while pulling an RV Dec. 26 near Hamilton, Ala. Bruce holds an angel figurine discovered in the wreckage while Judy holds their cat, Bo, who also survived the wreck. REGISTER/VICKIE MOSS

PHOTO: A rollover accident in rural Alabama sent Iolans Bruce and Judy Cochran to the hospital. Both are on the road to recovery. COURTESY PHOTO

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