TRAGEDY OVERCOME
Jane Rushton survived a horrific head-on crash and tells of the steps she’s taken in her physical and mental transformation
be healthy, to pursue her business and to live life to the full changed in an instant amid the sickening sound of tearing metal, shattering glass and the impact of flesh and bone on steering wheel and dashboard.
Rushton suffered catastrophic injuries in the crash, which happened on a blackspot stretch of road that had claimed five lives before her accident. Authorities would later set about fixing that stretch.
The fallout from her facial fractures, horrific damage to an eye, a broken leg, broken kneebone and a crushed heel still affects her today, but she has used the experience to rebuild her life and now teaches others how to put themselves on track for whatever it is they believe is missing in their lives.
Shock set in at the accident scene but Rushton recalls that while she was pinned against the steering wheel, all she wanted was to slip into the calm of a dark void.
Her rescuers were determined not to let that happen and, as the book Mind Tricks demonstrates, Jane Rushton slowly recovered, learned to walk again, set off on a journey of self-discovery and, as the years have passed, has so far weathered 16 operations to mend her face and restore sight to her damaged eye.
“I have learnt to love me over time,’’ she says. “The new face that changed every time I had surgery, how I look and who I have become (are) due to going through these big dips in my life. I feel like I am a better person because of this accident.’’
Rushton moved to Helensvale with her husband and children nine years ago. She has become a “life coach and spiritual healer’’, using her experiences of near-tragedy and transformation – along with the studies she has undertaken – to write Mind Tricks, which is a guide book to life and attitudes rather than just the story of the accident and recovery.
In it she lists five steps to improving life and finding purpose. The book is self-published and as such, is raw in the editing but for Rushton and those she seeks to help, it is the message that’s important rather than the means of delivery. “It changed me completely,’’ Rushton told Coast Weekend as she recalled the crash. “When I was 27 I’d been to 32 countries, I’d had an amazing life up until then. I’d started to actually like my face at 27 and then I smashed it all. It was really tough to deal with that but luckily I was positive enough to keep going.’’ A major turning point came when her sister urged her to stop relying on traditional medicine and ongoing operations for her recovery. “She said to me you have to start learning to heal yourself,’’ Rushton says. “That was the catalyst for getting me on track of self-discovery, of doing the healing myself. “I could still be a victim right now and blaming the other car or the road. I’ve met people who’ve been in accidents and they’re still living that life of blaming and being the victim.’’ DARKTOWN Author: Thomas Mullen Publisher: Little, Brown/ Hachette RRP: $32.99
IN Atlanta in the years just after the war, all crime is black and white.
On one side of the tracks are the rich, white neighbourhoods; on the other is the AfricanAmerican area guarded by the city’s first black police force, comprising just eight men.
Whites and AfricanAmericans enlisted and fought side by side in World War II, but little if any of that counts for anything in 1948 Atlanta.
Thomas Mullen’s suspense thriller Darktown includes a tense encounter that illustrates that point, as two black officers attempt to talk to a white driver whose car has hit a light pole.
“Shards of a white Buick’s headlight fell scattered across the sidewalk below the nowleaning pole,’’ writes Mullen.
Seated next to the driver is a woman who seems to have suffered some sort of injury, her lip red and slightly puffy.
“May I have your licence and registration, please sir?’’ one of the officers asks in the dark. “No, you may not.’’ As the policeman tries to explain why he, a black officer with no real power to arrest a white, wants to see the licence and to ask questions, the driver cuts him short: “You’re wasting my time, boy.’’
The officer says he has the authority to issue a citation and if need be, to call white officers if an arrest is required.
“Oh. Oh, damn, you’re one of the smart ones, huh?’’ the man says to the officer and smiles.
“I’m very impressed. Y’all certainly have come a long way.’’
Eventually the driver loses patience, or interest, and drives off – but not so fast as to indicate he’s rattled, just slow enough to make the point he doesn’t really care about the black cops and their lack of power to hold him.
Later the woman is found dead. The homicide should spark anger and official interest, but no one seems to care except the two officers, Boggs and Smith. They suspect white police are involved and will end up risking their jobs, community trust and lives in the pursuit of justice.
Mullen has form for mining the past for his stories.
Previous books included The Last Town On Earth, which was named Best Debut Novel of 2006 by USA Today and was awarded the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for excellence in historical fiction.