NATCHEZ — Mignon White cares for her animals and attends Church, and she said she wouldn’t be alive today without the help from God after an accident in 1979.

When The Dart landed near Itasca Drive on Thursday afternoon, White was walking one of her two dogs on the sidewalk.

Inside her house on Itasca Drive, six other animals were waiting for her return.

White said that when she was 19 years old in May 1979, she was in an automobile accident while driving home from Copiah-Lincoln Community College. White said the sun was in her eyes when she tried to turn left onto U.S. 84.

“I had pulled in front of a dump truck,” White said. “The dump truck saw me, and he tried to stop but he ended up side-swiping me. When he sideswiped me, it totaled my car. I was so tired that when my head hit the windshield, the impact knocked me out.”

White said she was in the hospital with a coma for six weeks, and she had a cracked rib, a cut on the left side of her forehead and a bruise on her brain stem.

“I had to go through years of speech therapy,” White said. “After the wreck, I had to learn to breathe and talk again.”

Now, White, 59, lives with her husband, Jerry White, two dogs and five cats that range from 4 to 16 years of age.

White said her love for cats began when she was an infant.

“I have had cats all my life,” White said. “When I was in the coma after the wreck, I had no cats. My mom tried to wake me up in the hospital. My mom promised me a cat. I didn’t wake up. Then, my mom promised me two cats, then I woke up.”

When she’s not spending time at home with her cats, White said she attends Abundant Life Church in Natchez. White has been attending the church for 15 years. White said she always goes to Church.

“I’m a real believer in God,” White said. “Because God has been real important to my life.”