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Date: May 10, 2009

In 1976 my husband Bill and I decided to move to Arizona to get away from the harsh winters of Pennsylvania. We had a large family, his three boys by a previous marriage and our three girls.

We rented a U-Haul trailer and loaded it with our possessions and hooked it up to our very old Dodge pick-up.

We had been on the road for 3 days and had made it to just outside of Santa Rosa, New Mexico, when I suddenly had such pain in my abdomen that I asked Bill to pull off at the next rest area. I went into the restroom, but the pains suddenly disappeared as quickly as they had come.

When I came back out to get into the truck, Bill was as white as a sheet. I asked him what was wrong. He took me to the driver side rear wheel and showed me. I almost died. Three of the five lug nuts had somehow broken off and only two lug nuts were holding the tire on.

If we had lost that wheel, the truck would have flipped over and most likely killed or severely injured all of our children and us.

I knew at that moment that someone was watching over us very closely and I will never ever forget how blessed we were that day.

Shirlean A. Hansen