My wife, Donnie, was about eight months pregnant when we went to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to spend a couple of days with her mom and dad. Late one afternoon she and I were out for a walk and came up to Highway 90, an always busy main artery.

Donnie said, “Instead of crossing the highway, why don’t we just walk down the shoulder for a little ways?” I started to do it initially, but then a strong feeling came over me and warned me not to. I remembered hearing of incidents where people would walk beside busy highways and vehicles would sometimes wreck and careen down the shoulders and hit them. I suggested that we cross over and instead walk in a ball field on the other side.

We waited for the traffic to momentarily ease and made our way across the road. Before we had even reached the ball field, we heard a crash and looked up to see two vehicles colliding. They both left the road and slid down the shoulders for a long way—right where we would have been walking. A woman had passed another car and pulled in too quickly in front of it. The collision caused her car to flip upside down and her car quit sliding when it hit a light pole. We found out later that she died from her injuries.

I went out later to look at the scene again. It was then that I noticed a net wire fence alongside the highway in that area and the realization hit me: there was no way we could have escaped those cars with Donnie being so far along with her pregnancy and unable to quickly get out of their way.

I shudder to think what would have happened if I had ignored God’s hand on my heart. I feel pretty certain that we would both have been killed or seriously injured. And at the very least, Donnie’s unborn baby, Toni, couldn’t have survived.

There’s a postscript to this story. Toni grew up to become a talented, successful singer whose Christian music and ministry has blessed many. Her albums include “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” and “Whatever It Takes,” both on the Winlear Music label.

Hilton H.

Warner Robbins, GA