May 13, 2025 • 22 mins
Melissa Harris lives in Cleveland, Ohio with her husband and their three children. In this deeply moving episode, Melissa shares the harrowing story of a family outing that turned tragic when her 4-year-old daughter, Mia, was struck by a falling tree branch.
In her book, Rewrite this Tragedy: A Beautiful Story of God’s Presence, Provision, and Divine Intervention, Melissa opens up about her family's journey through heartache, her struggles with faith, and how, through it all, she experienced God’s unwavering presence, peace, and hope.
"Our family will never be the same," Melissa says. "We simply want to give God the honor and glory for everything He has done." Tune in for an inspiring conversation about resilience, faith, and the power of divine intervention.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:30):
Our whole team is pleased to bring into the studio
an author and a local woman. Her name is Melissa Harris.
Welcome to the show, Melissa.
S2 (00:38):
Good morning. Thank you so much for having me.
S1 (00:40):
Glad to have you here. Now you and your husband, Mike,
live in Cleveland?
S2 (00:45):
Yes.
S1 (00:45):
And you have how many kids?
S2 (00:46):
Again, we have three.
S1 (00:47):
And what are their ages right now?
S2 (00:48):
So right now they are 12, 11 and eight.
S1 (00:52):
Okay. God bless you. Yeah, I have five kids. And
you're in that. That 12 year old. Is it a
boy or a girl? 12 year.
S2 (00:59):
Old girl.
S1 (01:00):
Okay. Oh buckle up sister.
S2 (01:02):
She's fantastic.
S1 (01:05):
She's listening right now, I'm sure.
S2 (01:07):
Please, Lord. Please.
S1 (01:08):
Yeah. No, no. Raising kids is such an adventure. And
you actually, you're going to share with us, uh, a
powerful testimony of something that happened in your family. And
to do that, we have to go back to October
of 2020, which the minute I saw the date of
what happened to your family, I was like, oh, no.
That October of 2020 was horrible. Horrible it was. We'd
(01:30):
already been in lockdown for six months by then or so, right? Yep.
So what was it like for your for your young
family in Covid? I mean, locked in like that.
S2 (01:41):
So we actually didn't put our kids in school that year.
So we were we were homeschooling.
S1 (01:46):
So it wasn't that dramatic.
S2 (01:47):
No. We actually just chose to back away from it.
My husband was a youth pastor at the time. So
we could go down like into his room and spend
a lot of time there. So thankfully we weren't too
cooped up and sometimes we would just go for a drive.
We'd go up to the lake, spend time up there.
S1 (02:04):
Yeah. I suddenly realized that there are like, there's an
outside during the pandemic, and you guys did something a
lot of people did. I would imagine you just you
decided on October 29th to go to Hocking Hills.
S2 (02:16):
Mhm.
S1 (02:17):
Can you tell folks who haven't been there what that
is and everything.
S2 (02:19):
Yeah. Hocking Hills is a national forest area where there's
just absolutely beautiful terrain. So you just go hike. There's
so many beautiful areas out there. And we got a
cabin secluded and it was just absolutely beautiful. Amazing.
S1 (02:35):
Yeah, I've thought about I've heard so many great things
about it. Have you guys been there? Ron, have you
been down to Hocking Hills?
S3 (02:40):
No. Not yet.
S4 (02:42):
I have, it's wonderful.
S1 (02:43):
And she's lived here the least of all of us.
Way to go, guys. I've wanted to go Hocking Hills.
S4 (02:49):
Further down south, it's.
S1 (02:50):
Closer to Columbus, right?
S4 (02:51):
Yes.
S1 (02:52):
Yeah. So I guess you do have a good.
S4 (02:53):
Reason in Logan County, I believe.
S1 (02:55):
Okay. Who's been there?
S4 (02:56):
Not me, I have.
S1 (02:58):
Um, so, Melissa, tell us what happened. So you get
the cabin. It's October 29th. You're in Hocking Hills. Tell
us about that terrible day.
S2 (03:08):
So, yeah, we had gotten there a few days before. Um,
and this was the last full day that we had.
So we headed out and it was actually raining. So
it was a little bit of a rough day, but
we're like, it's our last day. We're going to go anyway.
Let's be adventurous. So we went out, went for a
1 or 1 hike and then it started raining really hard.
So we ended up like waiting around for a couple hours,
(03:30):
finding places to go. We almost went back to the cabin,
but we just decided we're like, you know, let's let's
hold out. And sure enough, the rain stopped. So we
went to Congo Solo, which was, uh, it's a gorge.
So you can either take the lower trail, which is
by far the safer one, or the upper trail where
you're going along the rim, and it's like 200 foot drop.
(03:50):
So we spent a long time trying to figure out
should we do the upper trail or the lower trail.
If we do the upper trail, we got to hike
the kids all the way up there. That doesn't sound fun.
And somebody could fall, right? Oh, let's just not do that.
Little kids love.
S1 (04:02):
Cliffs. Yes, they love going to the.
S2 (04:03):
Edge of the cliffs of the cliff. And. Right. So
we ended up taking the lower trail, and it's a
paved path. I mean, by far the safest path you
could take. So we just very slowly, you know, walking,
hanging out, I. Mike and Mia were, you know, kind
of chasing each other, running, you know, like they were
doing a track meet and, um, of course, right at
(04:26):
the end, Mike would let me win. Oh, I can't
believe you beat me.
S1 (04:30):
And how old is Mia again?
S2 (04:31):
Mia was four. Four was four. That's just sweet. Sweetest,
cutest little thing. Um, we came to, like, a little cave.
Took a few pictures, and I just remember that moment
because it was the last pictures that we took before
the accident happened. Um, so about a minute after that,
my brother Scott was with us, so he and I
were just kind of hanging out slowly walking behind, and
(04:54):
they kind of all disappeared around a turn. And so
Mariah was first. Mia was in the middle, Micah was
was coming up on the rear and Mike behind them,
they all disappeared around the corner. And then, uh, I
just heard Mike yell, oh, Mia! And they're just the
way he said it. And Scott and I just looked
(05:16):
at each other like, what happened? So we took off
and went around the corner. And by the time we
had gotten there, Mike was already holding Mia and just
holding her in a cradled position. And I mean, just
that moment I'm looking at her and I'm looking at him,
and it was this instant moment of, she's gone. I mean,
she looked absolutely lifeless.
S1 (05:39):
And those kind of moments are just melted into your memory. Oh, yeah.
I mean, I bet right now you can see it like, it's.
S2 (05:44):
A I can see everything.
S1 (05:46):
So what happened?
S2 (05:47):
So at the time, honestly, I don't even know if
I knew what happened. Just in all the chaos and
the craziness. But a tree branch fell. So after they
went and did the investigation, it was a six inch
diameter tree branch and it fell from about 60ft.
S1 (06:02):
And and she could have never known it was coming. No.
And it hit her head.
S2 (06:06):
Yeah. It hit her right on the right side of
her head. Kind of right. And, uh. Yeah. Just a
little bit off to the right. Not quite on the top. Um, yeah.
And all that. I found out later in the moment,
it was just when he said, oh, Mia, I'm thinking,
what could have happened?
S1 (06:25):
He couldn't.
S2 (06:25):
Have.
S1 (06:25):
Run a.
S2 (06:26):
Paved path. Yeah, yeah. Um, so at that point, I mean,
just that moment of, like, she's gone.
S1 (06:34):
You thought she had died?
S2 (06:35):
I thought she I thought she was gone.
S1 (06:37):
Because it was just.
S2 (06:38):
Lifeless. Lifeless?
S1 (06:40):
Well, and then you're in the middle of a park. Yeah. Like,
how far were you from any sort of phone or
help or something?
S2 (06:45):
So we were about a half hour back on the trail.
S1 (06:48):
Did you have your cell phone?
S2 (06:49):
So we did. Um. And once. So. So, Mia, after
about maybe, I'm guessing half hour, 45, I mean, half,
half a minute, maybe 45 seconds. She let out this
awful scream, and and the way I write it is like.
It was like it was this involuntary scream just deep down.
(07:09):
So it was a moment of like, just my daughter
is in so much pain, but she's alive. So just
that moment was just this awful but beautiful moment at
the same time. And it was like, go, go get help,
go run! Um, so so Mike handed her to me
and just took off. Just took off running. I mean,
(07:31):
just hearing him yell, help! Help! And we were the
only ones on the trail, because when we came into
the parking lot, we were the only, um, car. So, um,
not long after that, he ran into hikers. That ended
up being a cool part of our story. Um, and
just told him what happened very briefly as he's running
up there because he didn't have any cell service. He
(07:53):
was assuming he was going to have to get to
the parking lot, get to his car, and drive somewhere
where he had service because there's just no service out there.
And at one point he stops, and he would remember
it a couple days before. He's fidgeting with his phone,
and he did the whole like power thing five times
and it makes the SOS come up. He never would
have thought of that. But just a few days before
(08:14):
it happened. And so he did that and he made
the call and got crystal clear 911.
S1 (08:21):
So now the hiker part of this tell us that part.
You said that's a cool part of the story. The
hikers he passed and told what happened, what happened with
the hikers.
S2 (08:29):
So they ended up coming pretty quickly. So they must
not have been long after we came in. They must have.
Because again. And it just stopped raining. So people probably
started coming back to the hikes. Um, so he told
them and they came to me. And at this point,
I mean, it's like it all just happened. I'm trying
to figure out what to do. Yeah. Um, do I
(08:51):
need to do CPR? Do I you know what is
going on? Um. And then. So they offered to take
Mariah and Micah back to the parking lot. And so
it was just this moment of like, man, am I
really going to send my two kids with somebody I
don't know? They seem like a nice couple, you know,
but I think it was more about just being alone.
(09:13):
So but but it was either that or keeping them
with me.
S1 (09:18):
Which could traumatize them to begin with because they're seeing
their sister.
S2 (09:21):
What if Mia did pass during that time? You know,
and just watching.
S1 (09:25):
It's an impossible choice.
S2 (09:27):
Yeah.
S1 (09:27):
So what did you how did you choose?
S2 (09:30):
I just felt like it was the lesser of the evils.
S1 (09:33):
To have them.
S2 (09:33):
Go to send. And that was the first. And I
wrote about it. It was the first moment that I'm like,
I trust God will take care of them. And then
I'm like, but he didn't take care of Mia, so
why should I trust him to take care of my
other two kids? Um, but but very quickly, I just
(09:55):
decided it was the best choice.
S1 (09:58):
So it was. I mean, what else can you do?
S2 (10:01):
Just watching them walk off, though, was awful.
S1 (10:03):
I can't even imagine. And your brother stayed with you?
S2 (10:06):
So, I don't know. It all was just so crazy.
And then a few chapters later in the book, I
explained that the next time. The first time I really
even thought about Scott, my brother, um, was when I
saw him. It was probably a good 15, 20 minutes
later when I was dealing with me. At that point,
I laid her down on the ground because the EMS
(10:28):
told me I should. And I looked up and I
saw him, and it was after I had put me
down on the ground. I was looking over about every
30s or so. She would come conscious, scream, and then
and then go unconscious again. So when I laid her
(10:49):
down and I'm looking her over, it was the first
time that I had seen the side of her head,
because this whole time I'm like, what happened? I still
don't know what happened. I don't see anything. She has
big curly hair. Yeah, yeah. So she has big curly hair.
So it so it covered the wound. But finally, I mean,
it was about the size of a softball just sitting
(11:10):
on the side of her head. And I saw it
and I just put my hand on it and I'm
like her. Her skull is crushed. So at that point,
it's like it's not a matter of if, it's a
matter of when. Like when, when are we going to
lose her? And then I looked up and my brother
was a little ways down. He hands on his head,
pacing around like, I don't know what to do. And
he said to me, he said. He said, I saw that.
(11:33):
He said, I saw it, but I didn't want to
tell you. So I don't know if when he was
looking at her from a distance, he probably saw it
before I did. So that was the first time I
remember Scott being there. Wow.
S1 (11:46):
How long did you have to wait till EMS showed up?
S2 (11:49):
About a half hour. Yeah. It was about a half
hour in hearing. That's the one thing to this day
that's still. I hear sirens, you know. I see an ambulance.
It just hits me differently now. But it's like I
could hear the sirens, and then it would disappear. And
then I'd hear them again, and then it would disappear
because they're driving all through the terrain.
S1 (12:10):
So did they have to actually drive down the path.
S2 (12:12):
To.
S1 (12:12):
Come all the.
S2 (12:13):
Way down? No, just like to get through the national forest.
S1 (12:15):
How did they get to you? Did they have to, like,
push the gurney?
S2 (12:18):
Yeah, they ran a gurney back to us. Yeah. So once,
once they got there, and then I finally, like it
was loud and it stayed. And I'm like, I think
I think they're here now. Um, and then they had.
And actually I learned this later. It was actually the
firefighters that got there first. So they actually ran back
and got her. And then the EMS met them about
(12:39):
halfway down the path and ran off.
S1 (12:42):
And so they they stabilized her and then just ran
towards the parking lot with her on a and with
a mom's heart. You're just.
S2 (12:50):
Yeah, that.
S1 (12:50):
Was.
S2 (12:50):
Even worse. It was even worse her leaving, because then
it was like I really had no control. You know,
I mean, prayer, of course, was the the one thing
I had.
S1 (13:02):
And and what was your prayer life like at that moment?
Because for those who haven't been through something like that,
you would imagine some sort of eloquent prayer. I mean,
what was it like for you?
S2 (13:11):
Oh, please don't take her. Yeah, just over and over again.
Please don't take her. Four years wasn't enough. I just
over and over again. And one of the like it is.
It is not an accident that I remembered randomly. Probably
the Holy Spirit. The woman that touched Jesus cloak in
the just came to my mind. It wouldn't have been
(13:33):
able to tell you where it was. Um, and I
just started praying that because I remember the story about
the woman touched his cloak and he felt the power
come out. And so I was like, you know, I'm like,
if if the power of God is that strong and
I have the power of the Holy Spirit living in me,
then then God can heal her. And this was after
she gave me a tiny bit of hope. One of
the times that she came conscious, I could see her
(13:57):
fight because her eyes were always way up in her head.
I could see her fight to like, I think, follow
my voice to to bring her eyes to center. And
I'm like, she's there like she's there. So that's when
I just can't. I'm like, now I'm praying for a miracle. Like,
I just I'm praying for a miracle because a miracle
is all we have at this point. So, um, aside
(14:19):
from just the short, you know, just bursts of prayer
over and over again, I'm like, Lord, if the power
of Jesus is that strong and I have the power
of the spirit living in me, then you can heal.
Or Lord, please, please heal our daughter. So just over
and over again, praying that and then to talk about
prayer a little bit more. My husband actually, I mean,
just he said when he was on the path running
(14:39):
and making the phone calls, just just saying out any
name of Jesus he could think of. He's he's like,
I want God to know that he is everything, everything
in my life, not just healer when I need him
like he's so I mean, every name he could think of,
of of Jesus. He was just saying over and over
again and just praying. And then even at one point
when he was driving after everything, he actually stopped his
(15:00):
car when he had service and started calling people because
he's like that. That is the thing that if our
daughter has any chance at all, it's just getting prayer warriors.
S1 (15:11):
Praying, and all I can think of when I hear
you say all that is the value of having God's
Word hidden in your heart. Yep. It's when those things
that just you don't have to find them, they just
come out.
S2 (15:22):
Mhm.
S1 (15:23):
It's beautiful.
S2 (15:24):
And that's where my my life has been pretty easy
if you will. Grew up in a Christian home. Went
to Christian college. Worked in churches a lot. Never really
dealt with anything. And I've always wondered you don't really
know if your faith is real or not until you're
truly tested. I mean, I thought it was real and
I felt like it was real. And even all the
scriptures I talk about in the book, like I did
(15:45):
not know where they all were at the time, they
just were scriptures that were coming to my mind or
passages to think about. It wasn't until after and I
started writing that I was looking them up. You know,
all the, you know, His eyes on the sparrow, you know,
and I'd look it up. And so but but I
learned that it was all there. It was in my heart.
It was in my mind, and it was there when
I needed it.
S1 (16:06):
I can't even imagine that. It's. It's the moments where
you're powerless that you're suddenly confronted with God's sovereignty. You know,
we especially as parents, we create this scenario in which
we think we have control, you know? And when you
encounter powerlessness, it's it's indescribable.
S2 (16:24):
Absolutely. And and there was something where it's like I
just had to there was this humility. And so many
times I went through of like, we have a chance.
There's no way, you know, God can save her. We're
not taking her home. You know, I mean, just back
and forth and back and forth, but getting to a
place where it was like, okay, worst case scenario, she passes.
(16:49):
She's in heaven with Jesus. I 100% believe that. And
there is comfort in that. And there's almost a part
of me that in my head I'm like, we should
all be envious. She gets to be with Jesus. She
had an amazing life. She was loved. She had great
brothers and sisters. She had friends. She knew nothing but
joy and happiness. And so getting to that place of like,
(17:13):
telling myself why it wouldn't be the worst thing in
the world if she passed.
S1 (17:17):
But it's almost like you're convincing yourself. Yeah, it's one
of those times when you're speaking truth that you know
is true and you're like, Lord, help me actually feel this, though.
S4 (17:25):
Oh, absolutely.
S1 (17:26):
Yeah. So, um, you get to the ambulance. Did you
ride in the ambulance or did your husband.
S2 (17:32):
No. I had a little bit of a fight with
one of the the Odnr officers. The kind of like
police officer, because they weren't letting me in the ambulance.
And I started getting pretty frustrated where I'm like, if
she's going to pass, I want to be with her.
I don't want her to be alone. Um, but so
we went back and forth. She went in, she came
(17:52):
back out. She said, they're not going to let you in.
And the thing she said finally was like, look, there's
a lot of people, and they're trying to save your
daughter's life. And there was just something about that that
I just collapsed. And I was like, okay, you know,
I've got to trust that they just need to do
what they know how to do, and I need to
just trust God. And so I let it go and
(18:15):
and then just went over to talk with our other kids,
kind of try to gather myself after I'd is finally
up until this point, I'd held myself together, but that's
when I just lost it.
S1 (18:26):
It must have been that that critical of a situation
that you couldn't right in there with them. That really
kind of.
S2 (18:31):
In talking with EMS after we learned a lot more
about her state.
S1 (18:36):
Um, because we only have just a couple of minutes left. Uh,
we can leave some of the some of the rest
of the story, um, for folks to find in your book.
But take us now to the hospital. Um, and she's
gotten the critical, critical care she needs. Did you get
the miracle you were hoping for? And what was it like?
S2 (18:58):
Yes. Uh, less than 24 hours later, they told us
they were going to try to wake her up because
they had her in an induced coma. And it was
that moment of, this is going to tell it all,
you know, is she going to wake up? Is she
going to be Mia? Are we, you know, the Mia
that we we knew before the accident? Um, so to
make a long story short, they they pulled the tube out. Um,
(19:18):
she instantly started crying, and she just yelled out. She
yelled out. I peed in my pull up. Which.
S1 (19:26):
That's such a four year old thing to say.
S5 (19:29):
And you're like, she'll be okay. It's like.
S2 (19:31):
Because she hates that feeling. She would come in our
room in the middle of the night and want another
pull up because she had peed in it and didn't
want to go back to sleep. So it was one
of those moments where it's like, it's it's Mia, like,
oh my goodness. And just wanting to bombard her with questions.
Do you know who we are? Do you know what happened?
Do you know where you are? And but it was
that moment. That was the initial. Our baby girl's. She's alive.
S1 (19:58):
Yeah. It's a it's a sweet memory. But what a
gift from God that that be what she says.
S2 (20:04):
Yeah.
S1 (20:04):
Because, I mean, I knew the instant you said it,
I was like.
S2 (20:07):
She's back. Yeah.
S1 (20:08):
It's her. Yeah. Um. Wow. And she's okay now.
S2 (20:12):
She's okay. If you met her today, you would have
no idea. Unless. Unless we told you that she had
anything happen to her. And a lot of people that
meet her doctors, things like that, they would actually stop
and be like, is this Mia? Like, yeah, they're like, yeah.
We read her charts like, three times, and this is
not what I expected to see.
S5 (20:31):
Wow.
S1 (20:32):
Yeah. And I'm looking at the picture on the book
and on the website. She's just beautiful. You talked about
her beautiful hair.
S5 (20:38):
It's just thick, curly, beautiful hair.
S1 (20:40):
Wow. So again, our guest today has been Melissa Harris. Uh,
she's a local woman, but an author. And I say,
but because local sounds so small, but I my my
prayer is that your your story be one that touches
people's lives and shows them the truth of who God
is and how good he is. If folks want to
(21:01):
learn more about your story and perhaps get, um, a
copy of the book called Rewrite This Tragedy, love the title.
How can they learn more?
S2 (21:10):
Uh, well, we do have a website rewrite this tragedy.org,
and it also has some videos and things to kind
of help connect even more with the story and with
our family, but pretty much anywhere Christian books are sold.
S1 (21:21):
So again, it's rewrite this tragedy and you can go
to rewrite this tragedy, rewrite this tragedy.org, or reach out
to us, support someone in our community who's sharing the
truth of Jesus Christ through their traumatic situation. And thanks
for sharing your heart. Um, sometimes people would be tempted
to kind of just make it a fairy tale, but no, no,
(21:43):
it's a it's a miracle from the Lord. That was
a painful miracle. Um, but pain is God's invitation to grow,
as we say here on the show.
S5 (21:51):
Amen.
S1 (21:52):
Uh, Melissa, thank you so much for your time today.
S2 (21:54):
Yeah. Thank you for having me on.
Our whole team is pleased to bring into the studio
an author and a local woman. Her name is Melissa Harris.
Welcome to the show, Melissa.
S2 (00:38):
Good morning. Thank you so much for having me.
S1 (00:40):
Glad to have you here. Now you and your husband, Mike,
live in Cleveland?
S2 (00:45):
Yes.
S1 (00:45):
And you have how many kids?
S2 (00:46):
Again, we have three.
S1 (00:47):
And what are their ages right now?
S2 (00:48):
So right now they are 12, 11 and eight.
S1 (00:52):
Okay. God bless you. Yeah, I have five kids. And
you're in that. That 12 year old. Is it a
boy or a girl? 12 year.
S2 (00:59):
Old girl.
S1 (01:00):
Okay. Oh buckle up sister.
S2 (01:02):
She's fantastic.
S1 (01:05):
She's listening right now, I'm sure.
S2 (01:07):
Please, Lord. Please.
S1 (01:08):
Yeah. No, no. Raising kids is such an adventure. And
you actually, you're going to share with us, uh, a
powerful testimony of something that happened in your family. And
to do that, we have to go back to October
of 2020, which the minute I saw the date of
what happened to your family, I was like, oh, no.
That October of 2020 was horrible. Horrible it was. We'd
(01:30):
already been in lockdown for six months by then or so, right? Yep.
So what was it like for your for your young
family in Covid? I mean, locked in like that.
S2 (01:41):
So we actually didn't put our kids in school that year.
So we were we were homeschooling.
S1 (01:46):
So it wasn't that dramatic.
S2 (01:47):
No. We actually just chose to back away from it.
My husband was a youth pastor at the time. So
we could go down like into his room and spend
a lot of time there. So thankfully we weren't too
cooped up and sometimes we would just go for a drive.
We'd go up to the lake, spend time up there.
S1 (02:04):
Yeah. I suddenly realized that there are like, there's an
outside during the pandemic, and you guys did something a
lot of people did. I would imagine you just you
decided on October 29th to go to Hocking Hills.
S2 (02:16):
Mhm.
S1 (02:17):
Can you tell folks who haven't been there what that
is and everything.
S2 (02:19):
Yeah. Hocking Hills is a national forest area where there's
just absolutely beautiful terrain. So you just go hike. There's
so many beautiful areas out there. And we got a
cabin secluded and it was just absolutely beautiful. Amazing.
S1 (02:35):
Yeah, I've thought about I've heard so many great things
about it. Have you guys been there? Ron, have you
been down to Hocking Hills?
S3 (02:40):
No. Not yet.
S4 (02:42):
I have, it's wonderful.
S1 (02:43):
And she's lived here the least of all of us.
Way to go, guys. I've wanted to go Hocking Hills.
S4 (02:49):
Further down south, it's.
S1 (02:50):
Closer to Columbus, right?
S4 (02:51):
Yes.
S1 (02:52):
Yeah. So I guess you do have a good.
S4 (02:53):
Reason in Logan County, I believe.
S1 (02:55):
Okay. Who's been there?
S4 (02:56):
Not me, I have.
S1 (02:58):
Um, so, Melissa, tell us what happened. So you get
the cabin. It's October 29th. You're in Hocking Hills. Tell
us about that terrible day.
S2 (03:08):
So, yeah, we had gotten there a few days before. Um,
and this was the last full day that we had.
So we headed out and it was actually raining. So
it was a little bit of a rough day, but
we're like, it's our last day. We're going to go anyway.
Let's be adventurous. So we went out, went for a
1 or 1 hike and then it started raining really hard.
So we ended up like waiting around for a couple hours,
(03:30):
finding places to go. We almost went back to the cabin,
but we just decided we're like, you know, let's let's
hold out. And sure enough, the rain stopped. So we
went to Congo Solo, which was, uh, it's a gorge.
So you can either take the lower trail, which is
by far the safer one, or the upper trail where
you're going along the rim, and it's like 200 foot drop.
(03:50):
So we spent a long time trying to figure out
should we do the upper trail or the lower trail.
If we do the upper trail, we got to hike
the kids all the way up there. That doesn't sound fun.
And somebody could fall, right? Oh, let's just not do that.
Little kids love.
S1 (04:02):
Cliffs. Yes, they love going to the.
S2 (04:03):
Edge of the cliffs of the cliff. And. Right. So
we ended up taking the lower trail, and it's a
paved path. I mean, by far the safest path you
could take. So we just very slowly, you know, walking,
hanging out, I. Mike and Mia were, you know, kind
of chasing each other, running, you know, like they were
doing a track meet and, um, of course, right at
(04:26):
the end, Mike would let me win. Oh, I can't
believe you beat me.
S1 (04:30):
And how old is Mia again?
S2 (04:31):
Mia was four. Four was four. That's just sweet. Sweetest,
cutest little thing. Um, we came to, like, a little cave.
Took a few pictures, and I just remember that moment
because it was the last pictures that we took before
the accident happened. Um, so about a minute after that,
my brother Scott was with us, so he and I
were just kind of hanging out slowly walking behind, and
(04:54):
they kind of all disappeared around a turn. And so
Mariah was first. Mia was in the middle, Micah was
was coming up on the rear and Mike behind them,
they all disappeared around the corner. And then, uh, I
just heard Mike yell, oh, Mia! And they're just the
way he said it. And Scott and I just looked
(05:16):
at each other like, what happened? So we took off
and went around the corner. And by the time we
had gotten there, Mike was already holding Mia and just
holding her in a cradled position. And I mean, just
that moment I'm looking at her and I'm looking at him,
and it was this instant moment of, she's gone. I mean,
she looked absolutely lifeless.
S1 (05:39):
And those kind of moments are just melted into your memory. Oh, yeah.
I mean, I bet right now you can see it like, it's.
S2 (05:44):
A I can see everything.
S1 (05:46):
So what happened?
S2 (05:47):
So at the time, honestly, I don't even know if
I knew what happened. Just in all the chaos and
the craziness. But a tree branch fell. So after they
went and did the investigation, it was a six inch
diameter tree branch and it fell from about 60ft.
S1 (06:02):
And and she could have never known it was coming. No.
And it hit her head.
S2 (06:06):
Yeah. It hit her right on the right side of
her head. Kind of right. And, uh. Yeah. Just a
little bit off to the right. Not quite on the top. Um, yeah.
And all that. I found out later in the moment,
it was just when he said, oh, Mia, I'm thinking,
what could have happened?
S1 (06:25):
He couldn't.
S2 (06:25):
Have.
S1 (06:25):
Run a.
S2 (06:26):
Paved path. Yeah, yeah. Um, so at that point, I mean,
just that moment of, like, she's gone.
S1 (06:34):
You thought she had died?
S2 (06:35):
I thought she I thought she was gone.
S1 (06:37):
Because it was just.
S2 (06:38):
Lifeless. Lifeless?
S1 (06:40):
Well, and then you're in the middle of a park. Yeah. Like,
how far were you from any sort of phone or
help or something?
S2 (06:45):
So we were about a half hour back on the trail.
S1 (06:48):
Did you have your cell phone?
S2 (06:49):
So we did. Um. And once. So. So, Mia, after
about maybe, I'm guessing half hour, 45, I mean, half,
half a minute, maybe 45 seconds. She let out this
awful scream, and and the way I write it is like.
It was like it was this involuntary scream just deep down.
(07:09):
So it was a moment of like, just my daughter
is in so much pain, but she's alive. So just
that moment was just this awful but beautiful moment at
the same time. And it was like, go, go get help,
go run! Um, so so Mike handed her to me
and just took off. Just took off running. I mean,
(07:31):
just hearing him yell, help! Help! And we were the
only ones on the trail, because when we came into
the parking lot, we were the only, um, car. So, um,
not long after that, he ran into hikers. That ended
up being a cool part of our story. Um, and
just told him what happened very briefly as he's running
up there because he didn't have any cell service. He
(07:53):
was assuming he was going to have to get to
the parking lot, get to his car, and drive somewhere
where he had service because there's just no service out there.
And at one point he stops, and he would remember
it a couple days before. He's fidgeting with his phone,
and he did the whole like power thing five times
and it makes the SOS come up. He never would
have thought of that. But just a few days before
(08:14):
it happened. And so he did that and he made
the call and got crystal clear 911.
S1 (08:21):
So now the hiker part of this tell us that part.
You said that's a cool part of the story. The
hikers he passed and told what happened, what happened with
the hikers.
S2 (08:29):
So they ended up coming pretty quickly. So they must
not have been long after we came in. They must have.
Because again. And it just stopped raining. So people probably
started coming back to the hikes. Um, so he told
them and they came to me. And at this point,
I mean, it's like it all just happened. I'm trying
to figure out what to do. Yeah. Um, do I
(08:51):
need to do CPR? Do I you know what is
going on? Um. And then. So they offered to take
Mariah and Micah back to the parking lot. And so
it was just this moment of like, man, am I
really going to send my two kids with somebody I
don't know? They seem like a nice couple, you know,
but I think it was more about just being alone.
(09:13):
So but but it was either that or keeping them
with me.
S1 (09:18):
Which could traumatize them to begin with because they're seeing
their sister.
S2 (09:21):
What if Mia did pass during that time? You know,
and just watching.
S1 (09:25):
It's an impossible choice.
S2 (09:27):
Yeah.
S1 (09:27):
So what did you how did you choose?
S2 (09:30):
I just felt like it was the lesser of the evils.
S1 (09:33):
To have them.
S2 (09:33):
Go to send. And that was the first. And I
wrote about it. It was the first moment that I'm like,
I trust God will take care of them. And then
I'm like, but he didn't take care of Mia, so
why should I trust him to take care of my
other two kids? Um, but but very quickly, I just
(09:55):
decided it was the best choice.
S1 (09:58):
So it was. I mean, what else can you do?
S2 (10:01):
Just watching them walk off, though, was awful.
S1 (10:03):
I can't even imagine. And your brother stayed with you?
S2 (10:06):
So, I don't know. It all was just so crazy.
And then a few chapters later in the book, I
explained that the next time. The first time I really
even thought about Scott, my brother, um, was when I
saw him. It was probably a good 15, 20 minutes
later when I was dealing with me. At that point,
I laid her down on the ground because the EMS
(10:28):
told me I should. And I looked up and I
saw him, and it was after I had put me
down on the ground. I was looking over about every
30s or so. She would come conscious, scream, and then
and then go unconscious again. So when I laid her
(10:49):
down and I'm looking her over, it was the first
time that I had seen the side of her head,
because this whole time I'm like, what happened? I still
don't know what happened. I don't see anything. She has
big curly hair. Yeah, yeah. So she has big curly hair.
So it so it covered the wound. But finally, I mean,
it was about the size of a softball just sitting
(11:10):
on the side of her head. And I saw it
and I just put my hand on it and I'm
like her. Her skull is crushed. So at that point,
it's like it's not a matter of if, it's a
matter of when. Like when, when are we going to
lose her? And then I looked up and my brother
was a little ways down. He hands on his head,
pacing around like, I don't know what to do. And
he said to me, he said. He said, I saw that.
(11:33):
He said, I saw it, but I didn't want to
tell you. So I don't know if when he was
looking at her from a distance, he probably saw it
before I did. So that was the first time I
remember Scott being there. Wow.
S1 (11:46):
How long did you have to wait till EMS showed up?
S2 (11:49):
About a half hour. Yeah. It was about a half
hour in hearing. That's the one thing to this day
that's still. I hear sirens, you know. I see an ambulance.
It just hits me differently now. But it's like I
could hear the sirens, and then it would disappear. And
then I'd hear them again, and then it would disappear
because they're driving all through the terrain.
S1 (12:10):
So did they have to actually drive down the path.
S2 (12:12):
To.
S1 (12:12):
Come all the.
S2 (12:13):
Way down? No, just like to get through the national forest.
S1 (12:15):
How did they get to you? Did they have to, like,
push the gurney?
S2 (12:18):
Yeah, they ran a gurney back to us. Yeah. So once,
once they got there, and then I finally, like it
was loud and it stayed. And I'm like, I think
I think they're here now. Um, and then they had.
And actually I learned this later. It was actually the
firefighters that got there first. So they actually ran back
and got her. And then the EMS met them about
(12:39):
halfway down the path and ran off.
S1 (12:42):
And so they they stabilized her and then just ran
towards the parking lot with her on a and with
a mom's heart. You're just.
S2 (12:50):
Yeah, that.
S1 (12:50):
Was.
S2 (12:50):
Even worse. It was even worse her leaving, because then
it was like I really had no control. You know,
I mean, prayer, of course, was the the one thing
I had.
S1 (13:02):
And and what was your prayer life like at that moment?
Because for those who haven't been through something like that,
you would imagine some sort of eloquent prayer. I mean,
what was it like for you?
S2 (13:11):
Oh, please don't take her. Yeah, just over and over again.
Please don't take her. Four years wasn't enough. I just
over and over again. And one of the like it is.
It is not an accident that I remembered randomly. Probably
the Holy Spirit. The woman that touched Jesus cloak in
the just came to my mind. It wouldn't have been
(13:33):
able to tell you where it was. Um, and I
just started praying that because I remember the story about
the woman touched his cloak and he felt the power
come out. And so I was like, you know, I'm like,
if if the power of God is that strong and
I have the power of the Holy Spirit living in me,
then then God can heal her. And this was after
she gave me a tiny bit of hope. One of
the times that she came conscious, I could see her
(13:57):
fight because her eyes were always way up in her head.
I could see her fight to like, I think, follow
my voice to to bring her eyes to center. And
I'm like, she's there like she's there. So that's when
I just can't. I'm like, now I'm praying for a miracle. Like,
I just I'm praying for a miracle because a miracle
is all we have at this point. So, um, aside
(14:19):
from just the short, you know, just bursts of prayer
over and over again, I'm like, Lord, if the power
of Jesus is that strong and I have the power
of the spirit living in me, then you can heal.
Or Lord, please, please heal our daughter. So just over
and over again, praying that and then to talk about
prayer a little bit more. My husband actually, I mean,
just he said when he was on the path running
(14:39):
and making the phone calls, just just saying out any
name of Jesus he could think of. He's he's like,
I want God to know that he is everything, everything
in my life, not just healer when I need him
like he's so I mean, every name he could think of,
of of Jesus. He was just saying over and over
again and just praying. And then even at one point
when he was driving after everything, he actually stopped his
(15:00):
car when he had service and started calling people because
he's like that. That is the thing that if our
daughter has any chance at all, it's just getting prayer warriors.
S1 (15:11):
Praying, and all I can think of when I hear
you say all that is the value of having God's
Word hidden in your heart. Yep. It's when those things
that just you don't have to find them, they just
come out.
S2 (15:22):
Mhm.
S1 (15:23):
It's beautiful.
S2 (15:24):
And that's where my my life has been pretty easy
if you will. Grew up in a Christian home. Went
to Christian college. Worked in churches a lot. Never really
dealt with anything. And I've always wondered you don't really
know if your faith is real or not until you're
truly tested. I mean, I thought it was real and
I felt like it was real. And even all the
scriptures I talk about in the book, like I did
(15:45):
not know where they all were at the time, they
just were scriptures that were coming to my mind or
passages to think about. It wasn't until after and I
started writing that I was looking them up. You know,
all the, you know, His eyes on the sparrow, you know,
and I'd look it up. And so but but I
learned that it was all there. It was in my heart.
It was in my mind, and it was there when
I needed it.
S1 (16:06):
I can't even imagine that. It's. It's the moments where
you're powerless that you're suddenly confronted with God's sovereignty. You know,
we especially as parents, we create this scenario in which
we think we have control, you know? And when you
encounter powerlessness, it's it's indescribable.
S2 (16:24):
Absolutely. And and there was something where it's like I
just had to there was this humility. And so many
times I went through of like, we have a chance.
There's no way, you know, God can save her. We're
not taking her home. You know, I mean, just back
and forth and back and forth, but getting to a
place where it was like, okay, worst case scenario, she passes.
(16:49):
She's in heaven with Jesus. I 100% believe that. And
there is comfort in that. And there's almost a part
of me that in my head I'm like, we should
all be envious. She gets to be with Jesus. She
had an amazing life. She was loved. She had great
brothers and sisters. She had friends. She knew nothing but
joy and happiness. And so getting to that place of like,
(17:13):
telling myself why it wouldn't be the worst thing in
the world if she passed.
S1 (17:17):
But it's almost like you're convincing yourself. Yeah, it's one
of those times when you're speaking truth that you know
is true and you're like, Lord, help me actually feel this, though.
S4 (17:25):
Oh, absolutely.
S1 (17:26):
Yeah. So, um, you get to the ambulance. Did you
ride in the ambulance or did your husband.
S2 (17:32):
No. I had a little bit of a fight with
one of the the Odnr officers. The kind of like
police officer, because they weren't letting me in the ambulance.
And I started getting pretty frustrated where I'm like, if
she's going to pass, I want to be with her.
I don't want her to be alone. Um, but so
we went back and forth. She went in, she came
(17:52):
back out. She said, they're not going to let you in.
And the thing she said finally was like, look, there's
a lot of people, and they're trying to save your
daughter's life. And there was just something about that that
I just collapsed. And I was like, okay, you know,
I've got to trust that they just need to do
what they know how to do, and I need to
just trust God. And so I let it go and
(18:15):
and then just went over to talk with our other kids,
kind of try to gather myself after I'd is finally
up until this point, I'd held myself together, but that's
when I just lost it.
S1 (18:26):
It must have been that that critical of a situation
that you couldn't right in there with them. That really
kind of.
S2 (18:31):
In talking with EMS after we learned a lot more
about her state.
S1 (18:36):
Um, because we only have just a couple of minutes left. Uh,
we can leave some of the some of the rest
of the story, um, for folks to find in your book.
But take us now to the hospital. Um, and she's
gotten the critical, critical care she needs. Did you get
the miracle you were hoping for? And what was it like?
S2 (18:58):
Yes. Uh, less than 24 hours later, they told us
they were going to try to wake her up because
they had her in an induced coma. And it was
that moment of, this is going to tell it all,
you know, is she going to wake up? Is she
going to be Mia? Are we, you know, the Mia
that we we knew before the accident? Um, so to
make a long story short, they they pulled the tube out. Um,
(19:18):
she instantly started crying, and she just yelled out. She
yelled out. I peed in my pull up. Which.
S1 (19:26):
That's such a four year old thing to say.
S5 (19:29):
And you're like, she'll be okay. It's like.
S2 (19:31):
Because she hates that feeling. She would come in our
room in the middle of the night and want another
pull up because she had peed in it and didn't
want to go back to sleep. So it was one
of those moments where it's like, it's it's Mia, like,
oh my goodness. And just wanting to bombard her with questions.
Do you know who we are? Do you know what happened?
Do you know where you are? And but it was
that moment. That was the initial. Our baby girl's. She's alive.
S1 (19:58):
Yeah. It's a it's a sweet memory. But what a
gift from God that that be what she says.
S2 (20:04):
Yeah.
S1 (20:04):
Because, I mean, I knew the instant you said it,
I was like.
S2 (20:07):
She's back. Yeah.
S1 (20:08):
It's her. Yeah. Um. Wow. And she's okay now.
S2 (20:12):
She's okay. If you met her today, you would have
no idea. Unless. Unless we told you that she had
anything happen to her. And a lot of people that
meet her doctors, things like that, they would actually stop
and be like, is this Mia? Like, yeah, they're like, yeah.
We read her charts like, three times, and this is
not what I expected to see.
S5 (20:31):
Wow.
S1 (20:32):
Yeah. And I'm looking at the picture on the book
and on the website. She's just beautiful. You talked about
her beautiful hair.
S5 (20:38):
It's just thick, curly, beautiful hair.
S1 (20:40):
Wow. So again, our guest today has been Melissa Harris. Uh,
she's a local woman, but an author. And I say,
but because local sounds so small, but I my my
prayer is that your your story be one that touches
people's lives and shows them the truth of who God
is and how good he is. If folks want to
(21:01):
learn more about your story and perhaps get, um, a
copy of the book called Rewrite This Tragedy, love the title.
How can they learn more?
S2 (21:10):
Uh, well, we do have a website rewrite this tragedy.org,
and it also has some videos and things to kind
of help connect even more with the story and with
our family, but pretty much anywhere Christian books are sold.
S1 (21:21):
So again, it's rewrite this tragedy and you can go
to rewrite this tragedy, rewrite this tragedy.org, or reach out
to us, support someone in our community who's sharing the
truth of Jesus Christ through their traumatic situation. And thanks
for sharing your heart. Um, sometimes people would be tempted
to kind of just make it a fairy tale, but no, no,
(21:43):
it's a it's a miracle from the Lord. That was
a painful miracle. Um, but pain is God's invitation to grow,
as we say here on the show.
S5 (21:51):
Amen.
S1 (21:52):
Uh, Melissa, thank you so much for your time today.
S2 (21:54):
Yeah. Thank you for having me on.
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