there is a story tonight on NBC Dateline about Laura and Whitney
the book in the bookshare collection is<http://www.bookshare.org/web/SingleTitle.html?submittitleid=49947>Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope
http://www.bookshare.org/web/SingleTitle.html?submittitleid=49947 Dateline story http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23849928/#storyContinuedLaura and Whitney were both outgoing and athletic, with a wide circle of friends. They didn't know each other well, but one night they worked together at Taylor's Fort Wayne campus, setting up a banquet.
At about 8 p.m., their work done, Laura and Whitney, along with seven other students and staff members, were riding in a school van. The were heading south on interstate 69, towards the main campus. Whitney's sister Carly -- also a student at Taylor -- was the first to hear that something was wrong.
What neither family knew yet was just how deadly the crash had been.A truck driver had lost control of his loaded semi. The big rig crossed the median and sideswiped the Taylor University van, ripping it open. The impact flung passengers and their belongings all over the interstate.
Five of the nine people on the van were killed instantly. They were transported to the county hospital. The four survivors all suffered injuries -- some serious.
One young woman had been thrown 50 feet from the wreckage. She was barely breathing and was quickly airlifted to the nearest trauma center, Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne.
That's where Laura Van Ryn's family was told to go. They arrived at about 1:15 in the morning.
Mistaken Identity Two families, one survivor One woman buried under the wrong name, another cared for by the wrong family Laura memorial fund https://www.lvrfund.com/home.php This airs on NBC tonight at 9:00 pm eastern 8:00 pm central time It is about the families that are in the book Mistaken Identity.This is a story about two families on an emotional journey unlike anything you've seen before. It's a story of deep faith and undying love -- and how both were tested to the limit by an almost unimaginable twist of fate.
It begins with two lovely young women whose lives became intertwined forever on a cool spring evening in 2006.
Laura Van Ryn was 22 at the time. Her parents, Don and Susie, lived in Caledonia, Mich. Laura was the youngest of four children.
She had an older sister, Lisa, and two brothers, Kenny and Mark. Laura and her boyfriend, Aryn, had been dating for three years. Everybody knew they'd get married.
Whitney Cerak was 18. She grew up in GayLord, Mich., with her parents, Newell and Colleen, and her older sister, Carly.
