The Accident That Changed Our Lives

Over twenty years ago, a teenager named Jeff Wilson was driving his car to high school and collided with another high school student named Tammy Baird. Baird wasn't seriously injured, but Wilson was consumed by deep depression for days. "At first, I saw her lying unconscious and was sure she was dead," he later recounted. "Even after I heard she was okay, I still felt terrible about myself." Wilson overcame the experience thanks to Baird's family, who assured him they forgave him, but the incident was forever etched in his memory.

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Twenty years later, Jeff Wilson discovered that not only is Tammy Baird not angry with him, but she credits him for her career success. One day, she emailed him. "You might be the first person who hit me in an accident, but you were certainly not the last," she wrote. "I became a professional stunt performer, and my expertise in the industry is car crashes! People ask me how I got so good at stunts where I'm supposedly hurt in a crash, and I say: Well, when I was in ninth grade, this guy crashed into me with his car..."

Jeff and Tammy reunited on an American radio show following the email, and he admitted that his life also improved because of the accident: he became a surgical assistant helping doctors perform orthopedic surgeries, many of which involve accident victims. "It gives me a good feeling to know I'm helping them recover," he explains about his work, a path he likely wouldn't have pursued without that accident.