Laura Bush Speaks from the Heart

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Dazed and injured, Laura says she saw another car drive up to the scene. A man got out and tended to the injured driver. She says she thought she recognized him as Mr. Douglas, the father of her friend Mike. "Judy, my friend, kept saying: 'I think that's Mr. Douglas. I think that's the father of whoever is [lying] there," she says. "And I said, 'Well, no, it couldn't be.'"
Laura says it never occurred to her that the other driver could be her good friend. "In my mind, I prayed the whole time: ... 'Please, God. Please, God. Please, God.'"
At the emergency room, Laura's room was separated from Mike's by a curtain. "I heard Miss Douglas come in, and I could hear Mrs. Douglas crying," she says. "I really knew then, but I just hoped against hope that that was not the case."
When she got home, Laura's parents confirmed her worst fears—Mike was the driver and he was dead. "Then I did what I think maybe people did then in West Texas, which is really sort of never talked about it again."
Laura says it never occurred to her that the other driver could be her good friend. "In my mind, I prayed the whole time: ... 'Please, God. Please, God. Please, God.'"
At the emergency room, Laura's room was separated from Mike's by a curtain. "I heard Miss Douglas come in, and I could hear Mrs. Douglas crying," she says. "I really knew then, but I just hoped against hope that that was not the case."
When she got home, Laura's parents confirmed her worst fears—Mike was the driver and he was dead. "Then I did what I think maybe people did then in West Texas, which is really sort of never talked about it again."