We didn't realize immediately how much Joseph saw. Obviously, Anthony's needs were most important. Matthew ran to his father. Since we were parked right in front of my brother's apartment, I called him to come out and be with Joseph so I could go with him.
At first, it didn't seem that bad. My father-in-law was moaning. We took that as a good sign. Of course he was moaning. He just got hit by a car! But moaning meant alive, and that seemed positive.
There was a blur of EMTs that just happened to be passing by and quickly called their ambulance. A district judge was nearby and summoned a state police trooper before 911 could even dispatch him, despite several phone calls coming in almost immediately. I've been a newspaper reporter since I was 16 years old. I've been on the scene of lots of accidents. It was still amazing to me how things progressed.
Paramedics determined that Anthony's legs were broken. So was his shoulder. He was confused, not knowing what happened, and no one wanted to tell him. He wondered if he had fallen. We let him believe that to keep him calm. Slowly, though, it started to dawn on him. "Did I get hit by a car?" Shhh. Just be quiet.
While Matthew stayed with his dad, I talked to the police. Talking to the police is pretty much my job, but I was a lot more worried about how I was going to explain what happened to my little boy than going through it with the trooper.
It seemed like forever before they decided to LifeFlight my father-in-law to Altoona, loading him into the ambulance to take him to the flat helicopter landing pad at the site of our closed local hospital. They closed the doors, and that was the last time Joseph saw his grandfather awake and somewhat lucid.
That was more than four months ago. Joseph has been reliving those events daily ever since.
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