James Kim

Two weeks before the unfortunate tragedy surrounding the Kim family in the mountains of Oregon, my sister and I were road-tripping it through as much of Oregon as possible in four days. The road the Kims took was the one I wanted to take from Gold Beach to I-5 (which would have taken us south to Ashland). But AAA warned us that that particular road was closed in the winter and so they routed us down to northern California and then back up north to Ashland. It turns out that our road trip was taking longer than expected so we turned east at Bandon and drove to Roseburg and north to Eugene. From what I read of the Kims' destination, they were heading south on I-5 after a vacation and missed the road at Roseburg that would have taken them west to the coast and Highway 1. They apparently then took the next road heading west, which was the one AAA warned us against. I think sometimes that that could have been my sister and me, stuck in the mountains in our rental Toyota Corolla. What would we have done? Could we have survived as long as the Kim family did? As the older sister, would I have been the one to go for help and would I have died? Being a Florida girl, most likely. The tragedy that befell the Kims really struck a chord with me. Just a simple thing like missing your exit......you just never know what will happen in the next minutes of your life, you can never really know the consequences of your choices until they come knocking on your door.

I send my prayers to Kati and her children and to the family of James Kim and to all who knew him.