There's a happy ending to the miracle on Highway 99. Lauri Wood of Clovis showed up at Fresno's Greyhound bus station before sunrise, bound for Camp Pendleton.
It was a trip she was supposed to take two months ago, but near tragedy struck 40 miles south of Fresno.
Wood swerved to miss something on Highway 99 in Tulare County. Her car flipped, landing on its side, leaving Wood hanging by her seatbelt. A stranger pulled her from the car, just moments before it caught fire.
Lauri thought her chance of seeing her son before he deployed had ended that day on Highway 99.
Lauri Wood said, "By the grace of God I got to go see my son before he deployed, and that trip meant everything to me, because he really is my hero."
The day Lauri had her accident, her son Matthew hurt his knee, he couldn't deploy until his knee healed.
In the meantime, Lauri had a few more unexpected surprises, the Sunday school classes at her church raised money for Lauri to stay in a motel near Camp Pendleton, and then...
Wood said, "An anonymous person sent me a check for like $250.00 so that I could take the train and take my son out to a nice dinner."
Wood says the trip was the culmination of a series of little miracles over the last two months, first being pulled from her burning car, and the truck driver who stopped has yet to come forward. Second, while the inside of her car was a burned and melted mess, her brand new bible survived the crash, with little damage. Finally, her son's injury gave her a second chance to see him before he deployed.
Wood believes after all she's seen in the last two months, her son Matthew will be safe for the nine months he's in Afghanistan.
"He will be okay," said Wood. "God will protect him, he will bring him home safely and He will bring him home as soon as he can."
