Lester Sharpe said he is lucky, even after an accident that took his right arm.

“I’m fortunate,” said Sharpe.

Sharpe was training a driver for the H.T. Hackney company- where he works- on June 21. The driver- on I-26- over-corrected, and the truck he was driving flipped. Sharpe -of West Columbia- was pinned in the truck for about an hour-and-a-half. His legs were jammed and he could not feel them. His arm under the cab.

“I has no feeling in my legs,” Sharper said. “I thought I would die.”

As he was being airlifted to the hospital, Sharpe said he got the feeling back in his legs. So he knew he was not paralyzed. “But my arm was crushed, I knew I’d lose it when I saw it,” he said.

But he did not have fear.

“I felt the presence of God,” Sharpe said. God gave him peace about it.

Since, Sharpe has held no pity party. A week after his accident was a back on the Midland Dixie Youth Baseball field in Pine Ridge, where he is a coach for the state champion coach pitch team.

The day he got out of the hospital he was on the field.

Three team goes to Laurel, Miss. in two weeks to compete with teams from across the South.

Sharpe said his church, Broadacres Baptist, in Cayce, has been supportive, and his baseball family has been a source of inspiration. A group of players who Sharpe coaches against, came to see him in the hospital and really lifted his spirits. His players at Pine Ridge have been great, too, he said.

Sharpe said he will be fitted for a prosthetic arm in August, and he is thankful to more forward with his life.

“I’ve just been blessed,” he said. “I don’t look at this as a setback.”

Sharpe also thanked his sister, Vickie Sharpe for being his caregiver through his ordeal. She has taken care of his wounds and driven him to the doctor.