At the age of 23 I died in a car accident.

My head hit the inside of my car so hard that part of my brain was pulverized into liquid brain matter, and parts of fractured skull were driven into my brain. How long we sat broken and bleeding in my car, no one will ever know. 

As my body sat crumpled in my wrecked car on a frigid December morning, my spirit left this world. 

Against all odds help arrived. The jaws of life bit through already mangled metal and glass to allow access to my lifeless body. First priority with me was to try and restart my heart. Without a heartbeat, nothing else mattered.

I would survive my horrific injuries. Incredibly, this turn-about in my prognosis all happened overnight; the doctors and nurses could not explain why. Then, the most revelatory thing of all occurred and it became all too obvious that a power greater than modern medicine was at work, helping me, bringing me out of the worst of my injuries, the unfathomable power of prayer.

I was born on February 10th, 1957 in Wareham, MA. My parents, Phil and Jean Holmes, were living in Falmouth, Massachusetts, at the time. This is the town where I would be raised and attend public school. Graduating from Falmouth High school in 1975, I was pretty much done with formal education. Not really having a direction in life, I would attend and leave several colleges before settling down into a good job as an estimator and superintendent for a local construction company. After several years of excelling at and loving my job, I was in a terrible car accident. My life went completely off the rails, and I would never be the same. My death, new life, and unexpectedly strong relationship with God is what I have written about in Pen, Paper, Prayer.