Coming home from a victorious competition, four buses full of marching band students and instructors drove down a road in Idaho late at night. A teenage boy aboard the last bus glanced forward during a movie and saw the bus in front of his bounce to the side of the road and roll over. The students later found out that the bus driver of the crashed bus had blacked out, and once realized, the woodwinds instructor that was aboard the bus ran to the front, took the wheel in her hands, and tried to keep the bus in control. By that point it was too late, and the instructor was thrown when the bus's control was lost. She didn't make it through the accident.
This is the kind of thing we hear in stories, newscasts from other states, something we think will never happen to someone close to us. But this is the story of the American Fork Marching Band, coming home from a competition in Idaho. Their win on the field was followed by a loss on the road. Heather Christensen, their woodwinds instructor, their teacher, their friend, died a hero last night, saving her kids from an accident that could have ended out much worse.
"Whenever a great marching band takes the field, an unmistakable and unique energy runs through the stadium. This energy, as every band member knows, is the pure love and connection of family. No longer are these students individual players marching within a hundred yards of each other; they are one inseparable unit that the English language calls a band. This ragtag collection of flesh, blood, and metal suddenly is transformed into a single body that, like some breathing ocean, works in perfect unison and would do anything to protect any part of itself.
Heather proved that last night.
Stepping in and placing her family before herself, she bravely and willingly gave all to once again truly define what it means to be a member of the band; she acted above and beyond any individualized agenda to be the person that she knew she could be; and although the individual is gone, every time the AF Band takes the field, SHE WILL BE WITH THEM. Because of her, my friends live.
I step off for her."
(-Alton Wheelhouse)
She probably knew that if she left her seat to try and take control of the bus, she wouldn't make it. But she did it anyway, because her kids were on that bus. Her bond with those teenagers was so strong, so unbreakable, she gave her life for them. Because she loved them.
I never met Heather Christensen. I never heard of her until last night. But she will always be in my heart. She will always be my hero. And, as Alton Wheelhouse stated so well -
I step off for her.
