90 Minutes in Heaven
By: Don Piper with Cecil Murphey
Genre: Non-Fiction


Don Piper lived in Texas. He had a beautiful wife named Eva and very handsome twin boys named Chris and Joe. He enjoyed his time with his family. Don was part of a Baptist General Convention of Texas along with his friend Dick Onerecker. The north shore of Lake Livingston where the Union Baptist Association had composed various Baptist churches in Houston area had placed a conference in January 1989. The conference was taken place at Trinity Pines. To get to Don’s destination he could either decide to drive Highway 59 or head west to Huntsville and hit 1-45, also known as Gulf Freeway. Since Don usually takes High 59 route he decided to go to the Gulf Freeway.

As Don was heading into Gulf Freeway he was looking along the bridge because it was his first time going on Gulf Freeway. He realized that the bridge was really old and long and also remembered that a few accidents had occurred in the past. The bridge had massive, rusty steel with a weird structure. Carefully driving on the bridge he drove at a careful speed limit, which is along fifty miles an hour. At 11:45 a.m. with a blink of his eye he had saw an eighteen-wheeler driven by an inmate at the Texas Department of Corrections had weaved across the road lines and crashed Don’s car head-on. Don was sandwiched right next to the bridge railing. All of them eighteen wheels went right on top of Dons car and smashed it. As soon as the accident occurred the police an ambulance came. The EMTs when straight to Don’s car to check a pulse. Don had died instantly as the accident happened. They put a white sheet over his body as the police directed traffic and as they tried to clean up the mess. At the time Don was being lifted into heaven. As soon has he reached there he could feel the love and hear and see his family before him. Don didn’t want to leave heaven at all. The music was so heavenly for him he didn’t even think about the people he left behind. Don was so happy to his family. Back down on earth Dick heard God that he wanted him to pray for Don. Dick came to the accident scene and asked the police to pray in the car with Don. Before Dick started to pray he placed his arm on Dons right hand and began to pray. After the prayers were over Dick sung a song called “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”. While singing the song Dick felt a clutch on his hand and heard a voice singing along and Don was alive! Dick kept telling the police that Don was alive but no one wanted to believe him. As the police checked for a pulse Don was really alive. They called the ambulance as soon as the police felt a pulse. Dick couldn’t believe such a miracle would bring a dead man to life. Taking Don to the hospital was difficult because some of the hospitals didn’t have the right tools to keep him alive. Finally as they found the right hospital they took him to the room and did whatever they could to keep him alive. During the surgery, medical staffs found that Don has pneumonia. Don could die the next day. As Dick heard that he received pneumonia he prayed again. Don had lived the next day and found that he had no head injuries after an eight-wheeler truck sandwiched his car. Don was in serious pain. His leg was smashed and so was his arm. Don had stayed at the hospital for months before he could go back home to his family. Pain was his only friend in the hospital and later then was recovery. As Don began to recover easily he was able to go home. The only thing was that Don wouldn’t be able to do anything. He laid on his bed for a whole 13 months! Luckily his loving wife took care of him and stayed with him through everything.

Dons life changed a lot with this memorable disaster and such a wonderful miracle. Every time someone mentioned about Dons trip to heaven his wife Eva laughed because she couldn’t believe such a thing. Before Dons accident and his relationship with his sons was wonderfully everyday after school his boys would hug him but now as Don lays on his bed his Sons look at him and walk away knowing how close they were to losing their father. Later as days passed by his sons finally realized that God had brought their father back to earth. They both went in Dons room and hugged him for a long time leaning against his chest. Don felt so good to feel the hugs of his boys. Don was recovering very well at the time and he could finally sit up and be pushed in a wheel chair. Don was also able to go back to church and explain his miracle that happened along with his friend Dick who had prayed for him to come back alive and not received any head injuries. Don felt good to be back in a long time. I felt like Dons life had a whole head of miracles on its way. The more things that happen. Pray for the positives and miracles come.