THE ROSARY

Bout 1978, ole Marshall Texas was blessed with one of the worst ice storms in its history.

Every outdoor thing you can imagine had a thick coating of ice. Power lines were down, trees were losing limbs, water pipes were bursting, and forget road travel. Well, the smarter folks didn't travel.

Thanks to idiots, the Texas Highway Patrol will always have plenty of work to do. We were working traffic accidents just about everywhere, but it soon became apparent that a particular spot on IH 20 near Longview was causing a major problem. The West bound lanes at that location included a gradual hill that was at least a mile long. All day cars and trucks were attempting to negotiate the hill, but most were sliding off into the ditch or just spinning their tires with no effect. We spent the entire day just trying to by hand push individuals enough to get them on their way (with little success).

One guy in a pickup was spinning his tires (without moving an inch) so fast that his speedometer likely registered 100 MPH. One of my Troopers (Rusty) started walking toward the driver to chew on his butt (I mean mentor him a bit) on how to better negotiate the ice (or stick his butt in a snow drift and just forget him for a bit?). Just as Rusty got up to the driver window he slipped, fell on his back, slid under the truck and completely disappeared.

Now imagine his Sergeant swallowing his tongue while trying to halt the pickup driver's frantic tire spinning and to "save" Rusty. Fortunately, Rusty stood up on the other side of the pickup unhurt and grinned at me. He had slid all the way to the shoulder of the road without stopping?

Anywho, we had spent all day in that frozen circus and for the most part had not succeeded in getting anything to the top of that dang hill. All of a sudden I saw approaching at moderate speed a small vehicle that was not sliding, slipping, or wavering from its course. Now I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what this driver had going that no one else had tried?

As the driver slowly eased by me, I saw that it was a nun in her black and white habit fingering some rosary beads while feverishly praying aloud.

As she successfully drove out of sight over the crest of the hill, I swear I could almost see a Heavenly Hand gently pushing her along.

And that ain't the end of the story. Shortly after that nun's ecclesiastical ride, the sun came out, the ice began to thaw, and we were able to clear the hill and allow the interstate traffic to resume.