Thank you to our community

On Oct. 9, my good friend and fellow pilot, Lowell Peterson, and I headed out for a fun-filled Saturday morning flight in the two seater RV6A plane I helped him finish build several years ago. We had enjoyed many flights together including two to Florida!

It was a bit windy that morning but we'd flown in wind before and we didn't expect any problems. The wind picked up while we were out that morning and by the time we began our descent into Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, we had a 25-knot cross wind. It turned out to be a traumatic and tragic ending to a great morning.

Never could we have imagined that Lowell's life would end instantly that morning and my life would change drastically as the plane was caught in a cross wind, sped off the runway and flipped over, breaking both our necks. The worse part by far was losing my good friend, Lowell, who died on impact that morning. In the past three months since our accident, I went from ICU and a 10-day hospitalization to 40 days in-patient rehab, learning how to swallow after complications following cervical spine surgery.

The outpouring of caring, visits and prayers from this community has been remarkable and has made a challenging three months livable. Close friends and family as well as people I rarely see have sent cards or stopped me in public to ask how I'm doing and tell me they've been praying for me. That kind of love and concern is priceless and God has heard each one of those prayers!

I give all credit to God for what I consider the miraculous healing I have experienced over the past three months. I've gone from not being able to eat or drink anything for weeks to being able to swallow food just within the past two weeks.

Thank you for your faithful prayers!

Jack Mehner is a Cape Girardeau resident.