Speakers Seth Vrandenburg and Mary Lind gave life lessons in LeBaron Hall to the greek community on Tuesday night about how the normality of life can be shattered in an instant by the simple act of drinking and driving.

Vrandenburg and Lind are both impelled by the haunting memories of the nights that took innocent lives and forever changed their own. Vrandenburg was convicted of drunk driving and Lind lost her husband to a drunk driver.

Vrandenburg, a 2001 graduate of Simpson College and member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, fell asleep at the wheel on Dec. 9, 2001, after a gathering with friends in Des Moines. At the time of the accident, Vrandenburg was a graduate student in the veterinary medicine school at Iowa State.

“I’m the drunk driver. I’m the one who took a life,” Vrandenburg said, choking on his words.

That night at a friend’s house, Vrandenburg had six beers in six hours, and “felt all right to drive.”

He ended up crossing the median and crashing into the car of Dean Funke, killing Funke. At the time, Vrandenburg had a blood alcohol content of .13. Eighteen months later, Vrandenburg started serving jail time in the minimum security Rockwell City Prison, and stayed there for three years. He now speaks about his experience as a cautionary tale to young adults.

“The thing that haunts me the most is the fact that his fianc‚ had just bought her wedding dress that day,” Vrandenburg said.

Mary Lind’s story starts on March 12, 1993, when her husband, Joseph W. Lind, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, was killed by a drunk driver. Joseph had turned his life around, becoming an active member in the Alcoholics Anonymous, and had been married to Mary Lind for three years with a 2-year-old son. Joseph was on his way home to organize an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when he was killed. The driver who killed him had spent the day drinking.

“Joe was 34-years-old; kind of a big guy. And there he was, laid out on a table. I laid my head down on his chest, thinking, ‘This is the last time, the last time.’

Ironically, Robert’s [the drunk driver] the kind of guy that Joe would have sponsored. He could have been sitting in my house,” Lind said, about the day Joe died.