Thank you, Sparta

To the editor: On February 10, at approximately 4:30 in the afternoon, my husband and seven year old son were involved in a nearly fatal head-on collision on West Mountain Road in Sparta. They were on their way home from weigh-ins for the Novice Level County Wrestling Tournament and never could have expected to be involved in such a horrible accident, while traveling so slowly on a local road. Now that our family is in a slightly lower crisis mode, we wanted to express our most sincere thanks to everyone who helped us during this tragic period in our lives. The actions of the members of the Sparta Police Department were beyond professional. They went out of their way to help us and were sincerely concerned about our son. On several occasions since the accident, the detectives and officers have taken the time to gently ask my son how he was doing when they saw him. It was heartwarming. We hope that no family ever needs the police in the capacity that ours did but, it is good to know that Sparta has such a great police department, available when tragedy strikes. I am told that residents near the accident immediately came to help and spoke to my son, trying to calm his fears as my husband had lost consciousness and there was a great deal of blood. To all of those citizens, I am forever grateful for any comfort you provided to my son when he was otherwise alone. Every night when I came home from the hospital, the answering machine was full of messages from people offering to help. The gifts and flowers and cards helped cheer up my husband while he was in intense pain. Again, it is difficult to put into words how thankful we are to the police, our friends and this community. Wanda Koch Sparta