Cordova man writes book about transformed life following near fatal car accident

He has written a book about his experience in hopes that others’ lives will be enriched by how he overcame adversity.

Calloway was involved in a car accident in the early morning hours of Sunday, July 1, 2007. He was ejected from the vehicle and nearly died while the only other occupant, Octavia Murphy, was killed.

Calloway remembers how two other people who attempted to help following the collision were electrocuted by a power line that was severed during the collision, while two others who attempted to help were left with severe burns.

“I spent three weeks in a coma. I got ejected out of the car. The accident happened like maybe 1 o’clock that morning. They recovered my body like 6 or 7 o’clock that morning,” said Calloway, who was transported to the then Regional Medical Center in Orangeburg before eventually being airlifted to Augusta for further treatment.

“Once I woke up from the coma about three weeks after the accident, they airlifted me. I couldn’t remember nothing. I had swelling on the brain, they had to attach one of my ears back,” Calloway said.

“Once I got out of the hospital, that’s when my cousin and my mother told me about all the people who had died as it pertained to the accident. I was blown away,” he said.

Calloway has since penned a book titled “Twists Turns and Adjustments: Leaving No Doubts.”

“I would like for others to know that, for one, God is in control of all things. Just because adversity and trials come your way, that doesn’t mean that you can be defeated. It’s more of God wanting you to trust him and his process more than your own,” he said.

Calloway’s book tells the story of his life’s journey leading up to the near-fatal accident, including how he rose from the despairing depths of poverty, prison and pain to understand the power of gratitude and rise to the greatness within himself.

“A lot of times, we’ve got to move ourselves out of the way and kind of follow God’s path…. Everything actually works together – your good and your bad. The only way that you can actually show God that you’re for him is through trials,” the author said.

Calloway said he learned to stand through his trials and tribulations and that he chose the title of his book for a reason.

“A lot of people go through trials and tribulations, and they want to submit, they want to give up and take the easy way out. God don’t want that. He want you to stand for him through the storm no matter what,” he said.

Calloway continued, “The title of the book is kind of an identification about life. You’re going to have twists and turns in life. You’re going to have to make adjustments. That defines life.”

He said he learned he had to isolate himself from certain people in his life in order to better himself, particularly after his harrowing car accident.

“Isolation is sometimes rehabilitation. Once you remove yourself from all of the things that are surrounding you that you think are actually there for you, but really are not and start to focus on you and your well-being, then you will see that some of those things really weren’t serving you no purpose,” Calloway said.

“Sometimes God has to isolate you because you won’t isolate yourself. So you’ve got to go through trials, you’ve got to go through situations where you have to look at people different. You have to see the bigger picture,” he said.

Calloway said his book is part of a series of three books he plans to write.

“Part one goes up to the initial accident. Part two is going to be what took place after the accident. It’s a lot that took place after the accident…. Part two is basically dealing with having to mentally and physically adjust to everything and everybody that I thought was for me,” he said.

Calloway continued, “Part three is going to be about the blessings of being able to survive parts one and two. It’s about the things you actually walk into and can grow from and how you can use all the bad events in your life for the better. You can make people better and give them a different mindset to keep them striving and pushing.”

The father of three is a character coach at the Refocus Academy, an alternative school in Orangeburg. He is now working to give other young people the same guidance he wished he had had at that age.

“The reason why I survived is God. I can’t give no credit nowhere else but God. I started to understand why he kept me,” he said, noting that he hopes others, especially the young people he mentors, can view his transformed life as “a ray of hope.”

“They can say, ‘If he did it, then I can do it.’ I’m trying to be a beacon of light to those who think that it’s not possible to change your life for the better,” Calloway said.

His book, which is published by Charleston, S.C.-based Palmetto Publishing, can be found at several online booksellers.