Tricia Price recalls that June 20 was ending as a typical Monday as she headed for home in her 2011 Toyota sedan.

She had just completed a day’s work at the Oregon Department of Forestry in La Grande and had traveled to Baker City to pick up her daughter, Sydney Palmer, who had just finished her first day of work at McDonald’s.

Just a mile and a half from their Haines home, as they drove north on Highway 30 between the Slash D arena and the Haines rodeo grounds, the evening “turned out to not be so typical,” Tricia said.

Her memories of what happened that night are muddled by the trauma and tragedy of the situation. But she recalls that just before her car was hit by a 2003 Buick that was driving in her lane, her two daughters had been chatting on the phone.

Sydney and her twin sister, Jayde, were making plans to attend a concert that Sydney had won tickets for.

“We were minding our own business,” Tricia, 40, recalled, and the next thing she knew a scene played out before her as if in slow motion.

“I saw her heading right for me and I couldn’t do anything,” she said. “I didn’t have time to react.”

The oncoming car was driven by Christina Lynn Long, 39, who died in the crash. Long had lived next door to the Price family for about 2fi years.

Long’s vehicle caught fire, which increased the sense of urgency Tricia felt to get herself and her daughter out of their car.

“I was trying to get us out and I couldn’t,” she said.

And then, suddenly, there were people who appeared as if by magic to help, Tricia says.

One woman driving by had buckets with her. The woman stopped her pickup, filled the buckets with water from the ditch, and helped to douse the fire in Long’s vehicle.

And then her husband, Paul Price, appeared along with police and emergency service workers.

“I woke up the next day at OHSU and I didn’t know where Sydney was,” she said.

Tricia and Sydney first were taken to the St. Alphonsus Medical Center in Baker City before being flown to separate trauma hospitals. Tricia went first to St. Mary Medical Center at Walla Walla, Washington, and then to Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland. Sydney was flown to St. Alphonsus Medical Center in Boise.

Sydney has little memory of her birthday this year, her mom said. Sydney was undergoing emergency surgery on June 23, the day she turned 18.

Mother and daughter were able to communicate via video chats, phone calls and text messages while they remained hospitalized.

And thanks to family members and friends who live in the Boise area, Sydney was never alone during her stay at St. Al’s.

The two have returned home and “are doing incredibly well,” Tricia said. “We have far surpassed the doctors’ expectations.”

Still there are doctors’ appointments and physical therapy sessions to attend while their bodies continue to mend. Both mother and daughter suffered serious internal injuries and whiplash from the impact of the crash. Sydney’s left arm was broken and Tricia suffered compression fractures in her spine.

One of Tricia’s knees also was damaged and some toes were broken.

The family is waiting for the insurance companies to determine how much money they will owe once all the bills are settled. The coverage of the minimal auto insurance policies held by Long and the Price family was exhausted the first night, Tricia said.

The Life Flight expense alone was $140,000. Until two years ago they had carried the FireMed insurance that covers ground and air ambulance transports.

Paul Price works as a transportation maintenance specialist for the Oregon Department of Transportation.

Just a week or two before the crash he had given a Life Flight presentation as part of his job.

The flier for his family to apply for the FireMed coverage was sitting on the kitchen table awaiting their attention this summer when the crash happened. They have since renewed their membership.

“It’s the best (money) you can spend, I can promise you that,” Paul said.

The cost of Sydney’s treatment at the Boise hospital is still unknown.

“I don’t even want to open any more bills at this point,” Tricia said. “But we do have good medical coverage.”

The family appreciates the generosity of relatives and friends who have donated money to help them pay for expenses such as travel to and from ongoing medical appointments in Boise and Portland.

“A couple of people paid our bills without our knowing it,” Tricia said. “The support from the community has been amazing. Our community has always been good about coming together and helping people who are in a tough spot.”

The family also is grateful to the emergency service workers, law enforcement and passersby who stopped to help them.

And Tricia says she truly believes that the prayers, helping hands and amazing acts of kindness toward her family have helped them heal.

Paul and Tricia say they harbor no ill will toward Long, who died in the crash, and who witnesses say was driving erratically before she crashed into Tricia’s car.

“There are no feelings of anger whatsoever,” Paul says. “It was a tragic accident.”

See more in the Aug. 15, 2016, issue of the Baker City Herald.