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Saturday, July 7, 2018

My Brother Taylor - "Pass the Asteroids, Please!"

July 27, 2018 marks the 25th anniversary of a life-changing event and true story of my brother, Taylor Hartley. To more thoroughly document and remember this, I have combined the details of several reports and sources into this one account.

"Pass the Asteroids, Please!" 

Gifts and a Telephone Call

Taylor Hartley
A report about Quasars
April 1993
Murray, Utah, July 27, 1993. Taylor still did not have a birthday present for his younger brother, Brent. The birthday was that day, so Taylor decided to ride his bike to a local store. He had another motive as well--to buy a gift for a neighborhood girl he had a crush on. He went on his way to the store without telling anyone.

 "Hello Hartleys," Brent answered after picking up the ringing family telephone at home. A teenager's voice came on and asked if he had a brother and started making a description of him. The teenager did not know the name of the person he was asking about, and he didn't even know to whom he was calling. The teenager also said, "He was riding a bike and got in an accident!"

Brent initially thought the teenager was referring to his oldest brother, Jason. But after listening and reasoning some, Brent suspected it was probably Taylor instead. Brent's mother, Linda, came on the phone and the teenager continued with his questions. "Do you have a son who's about 18? He's been very injured while riding on his bike. Do you have insurance? Should we call 911?" Hearing all this made Linda think it was a prank call.

An adult woman came on the line and started speaking with Linda. The two did not recognize each other, but after speaking some more, Linda learned it was Elaine Krause, a good friend who lived close by. Elaine explained what the teenager had told her about an accident which occurred along the busy highway behind her home. But Elaine did not see the accident or know all the details. Elaine told Linda she had better come. Linda, along with Brent, hurried to the scene.

The vicinity of the accident
5400 S. in Murray, Utah (looking west)
Google Street View, July 2007

 Sure enough, there lie nearly 15 year-old Taylor on the sidewalk, bloodied and groaning. It was clear he had crashed, and he was also not wearing a helmet. Another teenager, J Hatch, had remained by Taylor's side, talking to him and gently prodding him as needed, to help keep him awake while the other teenager, Carl Paulsen, sought help. Brent took off his baseball cap to provide some shade and shield Taylor's face from the sun, as quite a bit of blood had already dried and crusted over. A blanket was also bunched up and placed under Taylor's head to prop it up some and act like a pillow. Taylor needed immediate medical attention and 911 was alerted. In approximately 5-10 minutes, an ambulance, fire truck, police car, and sheriff arrived. Taylor was taken to the emergency room at Cottonwood Hospital (as it was then known).


Cottonwood Hospital, Murray, Utah (2007)

The Hospital and Injuries

Doctors dressed and cleaned Taylor's wounds carefully, taking about 5 hours to finish. He had multiple gross lacerations and abrasions over different parts of his body. A plastic surgeon put 43 stitches over Taylor's right eye, chin and lips, and a tooth had a chip fracture causing a lot of pain. A neurological examination stated the following:
"[...] The patient was only mildly oriented, being unable to give his full name or the situation that he was engaged in. He gave some foreign place as his current situation or environment. He could not name the current president, but made up a fictitious name, and he stated that the date today was 7-24-94 [actually 7-27-93] but could not state the specific day of the week. In fact, when questioned about the day of the week, he would only give a number, like 7 or 12. He was responsive to pain and he did try to be responsive to the questions asked, although he did so in a sluggishly responsive mode. Deep tendon reflexes could not be elicited in any extremities [...]"
A CT scan was also performed and the results showed Taylor suffered a major concussion, which caused severe brain damage. This was particularly worrisome because Taylor had previously suffered from a concussion about two years earlier in a sledding / tubing accident. This meant the negative effects of this second concussion could be amplified and take longer to recover from.

Taylor at Cottonwood Hospital
July 27, 1993
Taylor's parents and siblings came to see him at the hospital the evening of the accident. Being Brent's birthday, everyone in the hospital room actually sang happy birthday, including Taylor. Taylor also sang happy birthday a second time, but all by himself that time. 

The doctors had Taylor remain in the hospital overnight. He was released the next day and sent home to recover. Taylor's parents noticed that for a few days after the accident, Taylor acted and responded like a 6-year old.

Headlocks, Asteroids, Microwaves and Circuits

Taylor at home the day after the accident
July 28, 1993
In spite of the seriousness of Taylor's injuries, there were some light moments the family was able to laugh about. The same day Taylor got home from the hospital, there were already some birthday activities going on for Brent and his friends that were previously planned. After a day of swimming, pizza, and movies, Brent and his friends had a sleepover in the family room. Around 3:00 a.m., Taylor woke up, left his bedroom, walked into the family room, and all of a sudden put one of Brent's sleeping friends in a headlock! The friend must have been startled! Right after Taylor released Brent's friend from the headlock, Taylor laid down and went to sleep right there in the family room. It can only be imagined what Taylor may have been thinking, but the boys thought it was funny!

During a family dinner, Taylor wanted someone to pass him some food. He saw what he wanted and said, "Pass the asteroids, please!" It turns outs he was referring to fried scallops.
A family meal in the backyard
Left to right: Tom, Andrea, Brent, Jim, Angela, and Taylor
Murray, Utah, July 31, 1993

 Another time, Taylor asked the family what happened to him since he had no memory of the accident. Jim, Taylor's father, jokingly responded that his sister Andrea pushed him out of an airplane. Taylor then asked, in all seriousness, if he tried to pull the ripcord to his parachute once or twice. Jim responded to Taylor by saying he didn't pull the ripcord at all--and Taylor believed him! 

 In another instance, a member of the family asked Taylor how he got hurt, probably just to see what Taylor would come up with. Taylor responded that Andrea dropped a microwave on his head!

Elaine Krause's husband also came to visit Taylor soon after the accident and asked him when he would get his stitches out. Taylor replied, "I get my birthday out pretty soon. I get my circuit out pretty soon."

Speech and Reading Issues and the Miracle

About eight days after coming home from the hospital, Taylor's parents had a speech pathologist test him. Taylor's "mental age" decreased. Although he was nearly 15-years old, he was performing at the level of a 12-year old. But this was actually an improvement since Taylor was acting and responding like a 6-year old for a few days after the accident. To perform as a 12 year-old on the test suggests he was progressing quite rapidly. However, the results of the speech test indicated the following:
"At this time he is experiencing moderate to severe difficulty storing new information and retrieving previously learned information. Mental organization of information for expression, especially verbally, is also moderately impaired. Retrieval of specific words in conversation-level, down to short phrases, consists of considerable delay and many times the inability to call up the specific vocabulary needed. It is possible that he may be a candidate for cognitive therapy, to address the behaviors related to information processing which are impaired."
Although Taylor struggled, his rapid progress could be attributed to acts of faith. Before Taylor was analyzed by the speech pathologist, one of the more significant cognitive disabilities he had was he lost the ability to read. His mother, Linda, gave Taylor easy children's books to keep him occupied, but when Taylor stared at the words, his mind could not understand their meanings. It was as if the words were like Chinese characters to him. Linda soon found out Taylor could not read, so she stopped giving him books. However, she documented that, Tom, Taylor's 9 year-old brother, read children's books to him. Tom knew that Taylor could not read and recalls reading the children's books to Taylor in their backyard. Taylor also didn't seem to pay attention very well to those readings from Tom's perspective.

Around the same time Taylor discovered he couldn't read, Jim came home in the evening with an unusual request. Jim talked with Taylor and asked, "[Some church leaders] have invited all of us to read The Book of Mormon before stake conference, which is in two months. Will you do it?" 

 With a child-like mentality and innocence, Taylor replied he'd try even though he knew he couldn't read. Linda got angry with Jim for asking such an absurd thing since Jim knew as well as she that Taylor lost the ability to read!

Regardless, Taylor went to his bedroom that night to make an attempt. Taylor later described the experience:
"I went to my room, kneeled down and prayed. I can't remember what I prayed for, but I know it was very simple. I do remember, however, thinking to myself, 'If this is the Word of God, then I'll be able to read it. If it's not, then it'll be like the other books my mom gave me.'
"When I opened to the beginning, I looked down and read: 'I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents….' I was reading! There was no delay in my comprehension of the words either. Part of me was astonished while the other part of me wasn't.  
"When I woke up the next day, I was so excited about my recovery that I picked up the books my mom had given me, looked at their words, and then looked some more. I still couldn't understand them. So, for a time, the only book I could read was The Book of Mormon."
After his child-like prayer and show of faith, The Book of Mormon helped Taylor learn how to read again. The Book of Mormon was the only book he could read for about a week. After that, Taylor began to slowly understand written words in other books or sources. It was after this miraculous experience that Taylor was tested by the speech pathologist. Had the test been administered even a few days earlier, it is possible Taylor may not have been capable of completing it.

 Taylor ended up reading the entire Book of Mormon within one month, faster than he ever read it previously or any other book by comparison. He completed the challenge to read The Book of Mormon before his church's next stake conference, and one month early at that. Taylor said of this:
"As a result of this miracle and from what I read in The Book of Mormon, I know with absolute knowledge that its words are the words of God. They are the words of Christ."
The Recovery

Within a few months of the accident, Taylor recovered sufficiently to get back to normal life to the extent possible. He returned to school, but still had some struggles and frustrations not being able to process or do things as quickly. Teachers were asked by Taylor's parents to be a bit more lenient because of the head injury he had suffered. The accident also shattered Taylor's sense of self-confidence, and it wasn't until about 1.5 years after the accident he felt his self-confidence return more strongly. Overall, it took about 2.5 years until Taylor felt fully recovered from his injuries and disabilities.

Taylor's personality also changed after the accident, but in an unusual way following serious head trauma. His parents and family observed he became a more sweet, kind and thoughtful person, though he wasn't necessarily unkind or inconsiderate before. It is common after a serious head injury for someone to become more temperamental, irritable, or easier to anger, but this did not happen in Taylor's case.

Taylor went on, over time, to earn his Eagle Scout from the Boy Scouts of America, get an adult-level Black Belt in Okinawan Shorin-Ryu karate as a teenager, graduate from college with a degree in psychology and then later obtain a juris doctor (JD) degree to practice law--where speech and comprehending written words are particularly vital. Furthermore, Taylor also served as a missionary in South Korea teaching in both Korean and Korean sign language. This is particularly impressive since Korean is among the most exceptionally difficult languages for a native English speaker to learn!   
Taylor arriving home from his two-year mission in South Korea
Left to right: Tom, Brent, Linda, Taylor, Jim, Jason, and Angela
Salt Lake City International Airport, September 1999

 Prophetic Promises

One year before the accident happened, Taylor was given a patriarchal blessing by a local church leader (a patriarch). A patriarch places his hands on the head of the recipient, and faithful church members believe the words the patriarch receives and says are through divine revelation from God. A patriarchal blessing is intended to be a personalized road map that helps guide a person through life. In a part of Taylor's blessing, the following was pronounced:
"Follow the counsel and direction of those who are placed in leadership positions over you in the Church. I bless you that your mind and intellect will be quickened so that you will comprehend and understand those things that you read and study. That your testimony and knowledge of the Gospel will be greatly strengthened."  
Those words outlined chronologically and precisely what happened to Taylor in his situation surrounding the bike accident. Church leaders had given "counsel and direction" to read The Book of Mormon. When Taylor tried with the brain damage he had, his mind and intellect were literally "quickened" so that he could "comprehend and understand" those things that he "read." As a result of the quickening, Taylor's testimony and knowledge of Christ's "Gospel" were also "greatly strengthened." Taylor never would have anticipated that the prophetic promises stated in his patriarchal blessing would be fulfilled by means of an accident, traumatic head injury and brain damage!

Taylor's brother, Tom, once asked their father, Jim, why he would ask Taylor to read The Book of Mormon when he knew full well that Taylor could not read at the time. Jim responded with two words: "Inspired hope."

From Tragedy to Triumph

Had the teenage boys not been nearby to discover that Taylor crashed, it is possible he could have remained unnoticed for several hours. It would not have been known where to look, or who to ask, if Taylor never came back home since he failed to tell anyone where he went. The teenagers' arrival at the accident scene is also peculiar and a tender mercy.
Hostess Fruit Pies
The teenage boys, J Hatch and Carl Paulsen, had finished working their summer job for the day early afternoon on July 27, 1993. On their way home riding bikes, they stopped at a bakery outlet store and snacked on Hostess brand pies. After snacking, they continued riding their bikes home. But, for some reason, they turned at a certain intersection where they had never previously turned and took a different path home. This led them to ride on a sidewalk which went down a hill, and they started to gain high speeds. All of a sudden, Carl, who was in front, slammed on his bike breaks to prevent running over someone who was lying on the ground, bloodied, a ways ahead of them. J also slammed on his breaks, fish-tailed a bit, ran into Carl and his bike a bit, but luckily did not hit or run over the person lying on the ground. That person was Taylor whom they discovered, and then they acted quickly to help.  

 It is strange to consider that Taylor was unable to give his name to either the teenagers or doctors soon after the crash, but somehow he could correctly recite his home telephone number. The unusual phone call from an unknown teenager to the Hartley home, 25 years ago, was certainly no prank call. 

 Additionally, had the teenage boys not spent the time to stop and eat Hostess pies, or travel on a path they never previously traveled, they would have missed Taylor altogether either because of timing or location. J Hatch also previously had head injuries of his own, so he was prepared with some experience and knowledge of what to do for Taylor's situation. Carl was old enough and confident enough to hop a fence and seek out strangers so an emergency telephone call could be made--also surprising given he memorized a telephone number with Taylor being mostly incoherent. J Hatch and Carl Paulsen were particularly well-suited to help Taylor. They were the right people, at the right time, and at the right place. One would be hard-pressed to consider their discovery of Taylor as random chance or coincidence.

 While it all started as getting gifts for others, for a birthday and a crush, it quickly turned into a serious tragedy, but then later transformed into a great triumph! If someone were to meet Taylor today, he or she would never guess Taylor had severe brain damage in his youth. It can safely be said that Taylor's accident and recovery, along with his Book of Mormon miracle and the fulfillment of prophetic promises in his patriarchal blessing, were certainly a marvelous work and a wonder! 

Oh, and Taylor knows the difference between asteroids and fried scallops by now. He no longer asks someone to, "Pass the asteroids, please!"
J Hatch (left) and Taylor Hartley (right)
Reuniting nearly 25 years later
June 10, 2018

Written and adapted by Tom Hartley, July 2018
Reviewed by Taylor Hartley and J Hatch

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Additional Notes and Details:
  • In Taylor's estimation, there wasn't a worthwhile gift at the first store he visited (Smith's grocery store), so he rode his bike to a second store a bit farther away (Walmart). It was on the way to the second store the accident occurred.
  • The path Taylor took to the second store was along a busy highway (heading west on 5400 South, past 700 West) on a cement sidewalk. The sidewalk path also goes over a hill and has a steep point. By peddling enough, one can get a lot of speed when going downhill. Taylor remembers being at the top of the hill and thinking about cruising down the sidewalk path. At that point, however, Taylor's memory stops. He had to be told later he crashed after an area where a lot of sand and dirt were covering an uneven portion of the sidewalk.
  • There are other amusing or unusual things Taylor said soon after his accident. Linda later reported to Taylor that sometime during those first four or five days after the accident, Taylor asked her something like, "Mom, you know that man down the street I talked to the other day who's not of this world?  Why do humans live on a planet of plasma?" 
  • The teenagers who helped rescue Taylor knew Taylor was in need of immediate medical help, but they also knew and thought how expensive an ambulance was. Unsure if Taylor or his family had insurance to cover high medical costs, they wanted to call his parents first. That's when they asked Taylor for his name, but Taylor was unable to tell them. Somehow, though, Taylor was able to give them his phone number.
  • After getting the phone number, Carl Paulsen jumped the fence of the nearby condominium complex called Chestnut Place. J Hatch remained with Taylor. Carl knocked on doors in search of someone they could ask to use a home telephone (this was at a time before cellphones were commonplace). After some attempts and finding nobody at home, Carl finally got in contact with a stranger, Elaine Krause. It was Elaine's day off from work and happened to be home. It was then when Elaine allowed the stranger teenager to enter her home and make the telephone call about the accident using the telephone number Taylor provided.
  • Cottonwood Hospital in Murray, Utah closed in 2007 when the Intermountain Medical Center opened just six blocks away at 5300 South and State Street.
  • Jordan Terry was the friend of Brent who Taylor put in a headlock during the middle of the night.
  • Laurel Brown, a neighbor and friend to the family, was the speech pathologist who tested Taylor.
  • Linda, Taylor's mother, also recorded in her journal an interesting tender mercy. On Thursday, July 29, 1993, two days after the accident, a family friend named Marilyn Van Oostendorp called the Hartley home to see how Taylor was doing. She didn't know anything of the accident, but just felt she should call. Marilyn was actually calling from a hospital since she herself was hospitalized with pneumonia. She said she would call from the hospital to a temple and put Taylor's name on the prayer roll. Linda commented on this, "What a person. Here she has pneumonia, and she's calling us!"
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Sources and Related Information:

Events of Taylor Hartley's Bike Accident of 7/27/93 - Journal of Linda Hartley. Written September 17, 1993. 

Appreciative Parent. The Green Sheets newspaper (later known as the "Murray Eagle") - Signed as Jim and Linda Hartley and family. Dated August 19, 1993.

The Lord and The Book of Mormon Taught Me How to Read--Again - Original and unedited article submitted to the New Era Magazine. Written primarily by Jim Hartley on behalf of Taylor Hartley, likely around October 1993. 

My Crash Course in Reading. Magazine article. New Era Magazine, February 1999. This article was the edited version of The Lord and The Book of Mormon Taught Me How to Read--Again. New Era Magazine made the edits and changed the title. It was published in New Era Magazine more than 5 years after Jim and Taylor Hartley sent the article in and sold the copyrights. It is available online here:


Various Descriptions of My Book of Mormon Miracle. Compilation of journals and letters. Written by Taylor Hartley on various dates. One account (out of various) from the compilation is available online here:


Various communications via telephone, text, email, meeting in person, etc. with the following individuals: J Hatch (helped rescue Taylor at the time of accident), Jim Hartley (father), Linda Hartley (mother), Taylor Hartley, Brent Hartley (sibling),  Andrea Hartley (sibling), and Tom Hartley (sibling and author of this account).

Cottonwood Hospital Prepares to Close its Doors Forever. KSL News, October 26, 2007. Available here:


Cottonwood Hospital Closing Its Doors for Good. KSL News, October 29, 2007. Available here:

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