By Ethan Tutor
The Scene staff
Debra Hutcherson hung between life and death after a car crash 18 years ago. Now the Forest Park student and student worker is sharing the story of her “near-death experience.”
Hutcherson’s family and friends feared the worst as she lay unconscious at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, according to her self-published book, “The Light that Brought Me Through.”
“The doctors said I wouldn’t make it through the night,” she said last week in an interview. “That’s when it happened. I felt my soul leave my body. I had an out-of-body experience. When I came to, I saw a beam of light. It was so bright, I had to bow down.
“I felt power radiate from the source of the light. When I looked up, I saw a face, and he winked and then smiled. I heard a voice say, ‘Write a book,’ three times. After that, I woke up in the hospital, praising the Lord. Everybody thought I was crazy.”
But Hutcherson ultimately did what the voice told her and wrote the book. She will sign copies from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3, in the Student Center’s Highlander Lounge. The public is invited.
Hutcherson, 60, works part time in the TRiO office, which helps students overcome barriers to higher education. Her co-workers are excited about the book.
“I think it’s awesome,” said Jamie Bolar, TRiO director. “I think it’s something that she is definitely motivated or ordained to do. I think her story will reach and impact a lot of people. It’s a story of motivation that I think a lot of students need at this time of year, with finals and the holidays coming up.”
Hutcherson started attending Forest Park in 2015, after getting her high-school diploma through the federal Second Chance program. She’s majoring in human services and hopes to pursue a career in that field after graduating next year.
Hutcherson’s accident occurred in early July 2001. She was in the passenger seat of her then-husband’s car, crossing the Mississippi River on the way to buy fireworks. What was supposed to be a short trip turned into the fight of her life.
“I never saw who hit us,” Hutcherson said. “We assume it was a drunk driver, but he never stopped driving. We never saw who it was.”
Hutcherson suffered a severe head injury, which caused paralysis in her legs. She had to learn to walk again and is still recovering.
Hutcherson started writing the book soon after she got out of the hospital, but only recently did a friend at church help her self-publish it through WordPress.
Co-worker Phyliss Cole, a general transfer studies student, admires Hutcherson for being willing to share her story and taking the time to put it down in words.
“You never know who has gone through the same ordeal,” she said “Some people don’t make it. Thank God that the ones that do have the opportunity to tell their stories like this. People that go through traumatic experiences like this can be very secretive about their experience. To be able to tell a story like this, you have to be strong.”
Hutcherson attends Temple Church of Christ of the Apostolic Faith in St. Louis. She is remarried and has a daughter and three sons.
Hutcherson has printed more than 100 copies of “The Light that Brought Me Through.” She will sell them at the book signing. Or you can buy a copy for $12 through Amazon.
“It takes great bravery for someone to put themselves out there like this,” Bolar said. “I remember when I first met her, and she was telling me about how she was going to write a book. That was three years ago.”