Australia’s Melissa McGuinness’s life turned upside down on December 8, 2012. That night, her 18-year-old son was out drinking and smoking marijuana, and he made a fateful choice that ripped many, many lives apart. He got behind the wheel.
Seven years later, Melissa still brings her pain, her guilt, and her grief with her wherever she goes.
But she puts a purpose to it. She has become the founder of You Choose – Youth Road Safety , a campaign that visits high schools around Australia.
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These visits allow Melissa to share her experience with young people.
By giving them a first person perspective, she hopes to convince young drivers not to drive under the influence.
That night in December, Jordan got his Nissan up to 140 kph (about 87 mph) on the highway.
Another car containing five people had broken down on the side of the road, and they were all sitting in it when Jordan happened along.
The other car burst into flames after Jordan smashed into it.
The only survivor was the other driver. Jordan killed a 16-year-old, a 17-year-old, and a 20- and 23-year-old couple who were parents to a 15-month-old girl, in addition to himself.
When she’s talking to high school kids now, she emphasizes that her son was what she calls a “dirtbag driver.”
It’s her term for teenagers who think “they’re ten-foot tall and bullet proof.”
Word choice is very important to Melissa.
“There are accidents and there are choices,” Melissa says. “Jordan didn’t have an accident that night. That’s what happened to his victims. Jordan made a choice.”
The guilt over being a “perpetrator’s mother” still weighs on Melissa all these years later.
“As much as there are hundreds of reasons to be proud of Jordan… he died in shame,” she says. “This is how he’s going to be remembered. There’s no getting around that.
“Think of all the good stuff that you’ve done. Think of all the effort you’ve put into your life.”
“Think of all the effort people who have loved you put into your life. And imagine all of that being wiped out by one stupid choice. Because that’s the brutal reality of what happens.”
And when she gets to the end of her presentation, there are few dry eyes in the audience.
They’ve seen the wreckage from Jordan’s crash, the other car an unrecognizable heap of blackened metal, they’ve seen the funeral,.
And they’ve heard Melissa’s heart-wrenching story.
“The thing with… Jordan is he’s relatable because he’s just like any other other kid there that’s sitting in that auditorium… and I’m also relatable as the mum,” she says.
“[Through Jordan they’re shown] this great kid that made this one stupid choice that could be any of those kids. Any of them.”
h/t: Yahoo News , 9Now
