Judy Sabo
By Lorrie Ross
Staff Writer
There were angels around Judy Sabo when her van slid into a ditch on Wednesday, Feb. 18. Not only was she kept safe as her van left the road, she felt like angels showed up in other ways.
It happened around 3 p.m. in the afternoon, as Sabo was driving near her house on Fires Creek Road. Riding along in her 2019 Toyota Sienna van were her three fur children: Lucky, a blind and deaf shih tzu who is almost 16, Bebe, a 12 year-old shih tzu, and 1 year-old Cooper, who is part shih tzu and part poodle.
Sabo was momentarily distracted as she drove, when one of her dogs starting hacking. With one hand, she briefly reached for the dog while keeping her other hand on the steering wheel. Even so, she said she lost control of the wheel and it felt like it was being pulled.
Next thing she knew, her van veered a little bit and began sliding. “I am not good with distances, but it seemed to be about 20 to 30 feet,” she said.
The van reached the edge of the road and began sliding downward into a deep ditch. “It was sliding down and just kept going,” Sabo explained.
She remembers crying out something like, “Not now, God. I’m not ready.” She continued to feel as if someone else was controlling the steering wheel.
Right away, she felt as if her van was being slowly lowered to the bottom of the ditch. “It was like angels held the van and gently set it down upright,” she said.
She began crying when she realized they were OK. “I checked my ‘kids’ and myself, but there were no marks on any of us,” she smiled. “I said ‘thank you, God.’” During the entire ordeal, none of the pups made a peep, as if they were comforted and knew everything was fine the whole time.
Sabo’s angels kept coming — this time in the form of people stopping their cars to help. Her neighbor, Jimmy McCray showed up right away and parked his truck on the road above to check on her. Lots of other people pulled over.
“Every car that came by stopped,” Sabo said. “They formed a human chain hand-in-hand down the hill and handed my dogs up one at time to Jimmy’s truck. Then two of them helped me up and out of the ditch. So many people helped.”
She was surprised by how many people called her by name. “It was like they all knew me,” she said. “I have lived here more than 30 years and have never felt so much kindness.” Even now, she gets teary-eyed talking about it.
She could not remember the trooper’s name, but he was also very kind to her. Her neighbor took her home and the trooper stayed to wait for Turpin’s tow truck to pull her van from the ditch. She is hoping her van can be fixed despite the ditch dive, because her late husband, Craig Sabo, bought it for her shortly before he died.
She mainly wants to say thanks. “I do not know everyone’s names and I don’t remember who they said they were,” the soft-spoken woman said. “I just want to thank them for how much love they showed me by stopping to check on me and giving me their hands up.”
Sabo said, “I felt a lot of love.”