‘The gift of life that we have to honor’: Finding a path to hope after a tragic night
Tony Talbert, left, and David Marshall share the smiles of friendship, just hours before tragedy struck their lives in 2022. (Submitted photo)
(Editor’s note: As Pope Francis has announced a Jubilee Year for the Church with the theme, “Pilgrims of Hope,” The Criterion has invited you, our readers, to share your stories of hope—how embracing hope has helped and guided you in the toughest moments of your life, how others have given you hope for your future, how your faith in God has sustained you and uplifted you. Here is another story in a continuing series.)
By John Shaughnessy
Before the drunk driver hit their car from behind at 100 mph, the three friends had been recalling the remarkable talk they had heard that evening.
Before their car spun sideways, struck a guardrail, went airborne and flipped over and over until crashing into some trees, Tony Talbert, his wife Donna and their friend David Marshall had talked about what they wanted to do to bring hope into the lives of people who needed it.
Before their car slid down a steep slope on its roof for what seemed like an eternity in the darkness, the three friends had been reflecting on the story that U.S. Marine veteran and motivational speaker Josh Bleill had shared during the annual fundraising event for Seton Catholic Schools in Richmond.
Bleill, who had attended Purdue University and worked for the Indianapolis Colts, told the audience that while he served his country in Iraq, a bomb had exploded under the military vehicle in which he was traveling, resulting in the deaths of two of his friends and the loss of both his legs.
And yet the main message that Bleill had shared was one of hope.
He talked about his recovery, including two years of extensive rehabilitation at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. He shared that while his body wasn’t whole, his mind and his spirit were. And what struck the three friends most of all was Bleill’s belief that, when challenges and tragedies come into our lives, we have to turn to God; we have to rely on him to help fix and heal us because we can’t do those things on our own.
The message especially impacted the 37-year-old Marshall. From the backseat of the Talberts’ car that Tony was driving, Marshall talked about continuing to focus on turning around his life from the substance abuse problems of his past.
That positive energy filled the three friends as they were about a mile from Marshall’s home. A moment later, the drunk driver, who hadn’t turned on the headlights of his vehicle, rammed into their car, sending it and their lives spinning out of control.
‘I knew in my heart that nobody survived but me’
“We had no warning,” Tony recalls. “We were on a rural road. There were no lights on his car. It appears he tried to miss us at the end. He hit the left side of our car. That spun us sideways. Once we hit the guardrail, it launched us into the air, and we went airborne for about 100 feet. End over end. Until we hit a cluster of trees. And then we slid down a steep embankment about 40 to 50 feet on our roof.
“When we did stop, the sound was deafening. Glass breaking and metal crunching. Then all of a sudden, we had this moment of silence. I was afraid to say anything because I knew in my heart that nobody survived but me. Because it was so violent.”
A second later, he heard his wife say, “Tony, are you OK?”
“I said yes,” he recalls. “But I was trapped. I couldn’t get out of my seat belt. I was hanging upside down. She was facing the back of the car somehow. She said, ‘Tony, David is really bad.’ There was no way to get out of the car. It was crushed.”
In that moment, the car’s safety and security system activated, with a voice asking if everyone was conscious.
“We’re screaming, ‘Please help! Please help!’ ” Tony recalls. “Then a guy came down the embankment. He lived on the other side of the creek, he heard the noise, and he knew it was a crash. He grabbed Donna’s hand through the broken window and said, ‘Just pray. Just pray.’
“I could feel the Holy Spirit enter our vehicle, and I felt a sense of calm. I could feel a peace.”
His thoughts quickly focused on Marshall again.
“Even seeing what we saw with David, we hoped he could be revived,” Tony says. “When the EMT first got to us, Donna asked, ‘How’s David?’
“The EMT said, ‘He’s gone.’ ”
‘That hit me like a ton of bricks’
Shortly after the EMT told them that Marshall was dead, firefighters arrived and started cutting through the car to free the Talberts.
“Eventually they got it opened enough where they could haul Donna out on a backboard. I just got out of the car. They took Donna up first. They made me wait until the second board came down,” Tony recalls. “We had concussions. I had a couple cuts. I had to have five stitches. Donna had glass in her leg, but that was it. It was a miracle. We know we shouldn’t have survived.”
Nearly three years have passed since that tragedy on April 23, 2022. In the days and weeks that followed, the couple received an outpouring of prayers and cards from people—thoughtful touches that made a huge difference to them. Still, there were struggles, including thoughts of why they survived. And those struggles continued for a long time.
“There have been weeks on end where we both have experienced dozens of flashbacks each day,” Tony notes. “I went through a period of a couple of months where I just had flashback after flashback all day long. I couldn’t focus. I had to take a medical leave from work.
“One of the mistakes I made was that I tried to fix myself. And when we try to fix ourselves, we just get broken again. But if we turn it over to the Lord, he heals us.”
Tony’s path toward healing was helped by a conversation with a friend, a retired psychiatrist, a few months ago.
“I reached a turning point when a friend suggested that when I have a flashback of seeing David pass away, I should see this event in a different light. He said that instead of seeing a dying David, I should see Jesus lifting him up to heaven from our vehicle, in this light and with a smile on his face.
“That hit me like a ton of bricks. I keep seeing that picture of Jesus raising David up. That brings me joy. That has given me the hope and path to a more complete emotional recovery.”
So has reaching out to the young man who caused the crash that night, including visiting him in prison.
‘I hope and pray for that every day’
“The kid who hit us—the Holy Spirit pulled me together to go to jail to visit him. It was maybe three weeks after the accident,” Tony says. “When I went, he had a one-page letter for me.
“He was asking for forgiveness and saying, ‘I wish it was me who died. I hope you can forgive me, but I can never forgive myself.’ He put in there, ‘I have been lost, lost in hope and faith. I’ve been reading the Bible, looking for answers.’ ”
After reading the note, Tony talked to the man, who is in his early 20s, and listened as he shared details from his life. He has returned to visit the young man two more times, each visit taking him back to that tragic night. Those memories also include what Tony had been reading on the morning of that day—when he looked forward to being with his wife and Marshall for the talk by Josh Bleill.
On that morning, Tony picked up the book, Jesus Calling, and focused on a Scripture readings for the day. Psalm 141:8 especially caught his attention: “But my eyes are fixed on you, O sovereign Lord; in you I take refuge. Do not give me over to death.”
Tony asked the prison personnel if he could give a copy of the book to the young man.
“They said yes, so I got him a copy,” Tony says. “Maybe in the time he’s incarcerated, it will help him not be influenced by a lot of evil people, and he’ll come out a better person. I hope and pray for that every day.
“I told him, “I forgive you, but your responsibility for my forgiveness is to come out of this as a better person.’ ”
Tony admits that his journey to forgiveness “wasn’t easy.” But he also says it’s been “life changing.”
“Since then, it is so much easier to forgive people,” he says. “If I can forgive somebody who killed somebody I love, I can forgive those little things that happen that maybe I would have held a grudge about before. It’s made anything that’s challenging easier for me.”
He pauses and adds, “We have our faith. I don’t know how people who don’t have faith get through something like this.”
Honoring the gift of life—and a friend
In the time since the tragedy, the Talberts have kept their focus on one main purpose.
“We know that God gave us the gift of life that we have to honor,” Tony says.
Their thoughts have also stayed focused on honoring Marshall.
The couple had volunteered with him at the Tri-County Good Samaritans Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which serves people in Fayette, Union and Wayne counties. It’s also where Marshall’s mother, Vicky Greer, volunteered.
“David had a troubled past and made his way back home to his mom due to some health issues,” Tony says. “That’s how I met him. I introduced him to St. Vincent de Paul, and that’s what transformed David.”
As the couple drove Marshall home from the inspiring talk by Bleill, his energy was high. So was his willingness to take his involvement with the St. Vincent de Paul conference to another level.
“There was a really positive conversation going on,” Tony says. “We actually started talking to David about being a spokesperson for St. Vincent de Paul. In that conversation, he said, ‘I think that’s something I can do.’ We wanted to start this program called Changing Lives Forever where we help people get out of poverty. He came to the conclusion that he could be that spokesperson.”
In Marshall’s honor, his mother, the Talberts and other volunteers with the Tri-County Good Samaritans have created David’s House in Richmond, a place where the Changing Lives Forever program is offered, among other efforts, to give people hope and assistance in striving for a better life.
“We now know the path the Lord is leading us—to honor our gift of life that God has given us,” Tony says. “This path is to love our neighbor and give them hope. We facilitate this by leading our local St. Vincent de Paul conference and serving the poor.
“Through what was a very dark situation, God has given us a bright light to follow. This inspires us to let the Lord shine through us. He has put the right people in our path at the right time. We want to be pilgrims of hope, and we’re the perfect community to do that—the Catholic community.”
(If you have a story of hope to share, please send it to John Shaughnessy by
e-mail at jshaughnessy@archindy.org or by mail in care of The Criterion, 1400
N. Meridian St. Indianapolis, IN 46202. Please include your parish and a daytime phone number where you can be reached.) †
