Linling Cai, a visiting scholar with MSU’s Confucius Institute who survived a car accident that killed two others last October on I-75, recounts her recovery from the trauma of the crash.
It’s been more than a year since MSU students Humphrey Petersen-Jones and Linling Cai were hospitalized after they each survived a car accident that claimed the lives of their friends, and, despite the trauma , they’re moving on.
Cai’s friends, University of Michigan graduate students Ran Xu and Zhangqin Xie, were killed in the crash near West Branch, Mich., on I-75 on Oct. 16, 2010.
Cai, a visiting scholar with MSU’s Confucius Institute, survived but suffered a fractured neck, a broken right arm and a broken tooth.
The institute helped pay for Cai’s mother to fly to the U.S. from China to stay with her while she recovered.
It took five months before she was able to cook, move around by herself and return to her job as a language culture teacher at Lansing’s Post Oak Elementary. Parents from the school transported her to doctor visits in Ann Arbor and students filled her hospital room with get-well cards and paid for a sturdy bed to support her neck.
Cai said she relied on her mother to care for her and to support her emotionally.
“She almost did everything because in the first couple months I couldn’t do anything,” she said.
On the anniversary of Xu’s death, Cai drove to her grave in Ann Arbor and visited Xu’s parents.
“Sometimes, when I think about my two friends who passed away, I still feel very sad,” Cai said. “But that is what happened — we have to accept the reality.”
Laying in the hospital bed at St. Mary’s of Michigan Standish Hospital last fall, Cai said she realized the value of life.
“I almost lost everything,” she said. “But now I can go back to a normal life. I don’t want to waste it.”
Petersen-Jones, a human biology sophomore, also is moving forward, but it is harder for him to recall the accident. Petersen-Jones’ friends and Okemos, Mich., residents 18-year-old Matthew Kolstoe and 19-year-old Heather Comstock and 18-year-old Williamston, Mich., resident Sarina Seger were killed in the Oct. 10, 2010, accident that left him hospitalized for weeks.
“Physically it was hard … emotionally it was even harder,” he said. “I lost my friend and (had to) come to terms with what happened.”
Cai returned to her job at Post Oak Elementary in late spring.
Despite the trauma of the injury, Cai comes to work with a smile on her face, Post Oak Principal Camela Diaz said.
“She had two choices: curl up and let her insides die because of what happened to her friends, or she could take the healing process … and go forward and share that gift with others.” Diaz said.
“That’s obviously what she’s done.”
Each moment she spends with her students is precious, Cai said — even going to the grocery store to buy her own food is a blessing.
Peterson-Jones returned to school this year and expects to graduate on time despite the weeks he spent in the hospital.
“Things have been great, (I’m) just keeping on keeping on,” he said. “(I’m) just moving on with life.”
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