Evelyn Rewan will never get to say thank you to the angel who saved her life on the night her car burst into flames in a crash on South Shore Road.

The best she can do is tell Winston (Yogi) Burrows' family how grateful she is for the gesture that effectively cost him his own life.

Ms Rewan, now recovering from a broken neck doctors say should have killed her, spoke to The Royal Gazette yesterday to pay tribute to her friend Mr. Burrows, who died in the accident in the early hours of Sunday, April 5.

After an evening in South Shore bars, Mr. Burrows had offered to drive the mother-of-three home to Warwick — not because she was drunk, but she'd had a couple of drinks and he didn't want her taking any risks.

They got as far as The Swizzle before their car was involved in a collision with a truck coming the other way.

Mr. Burrows died instantly; Ms Rewan lost consciousness but was dragged out of the vehicle by fellow passenger Honest Masawi seconds before it caught fire.

If it wasn't for Mr. Burrows' gesture, Ms Rewan would have been in the driver's seat and, she believes, she would have been the one that died.

"I now say he was my angel because if that was me behind the wheel, it would have been me," she said.

"Not that I wanted him to die — oh no — but he was my angel. That was him. That was the kind of thing he would do. He always wanted to help somebody, all of that.

"I just want to say thank you to him, and to his family, and ask them to continue to stay strong. I know God is helping them."

Ms Rewan said she had spent the evening chatting with Mr. Burrows.

"I was just shocked to see him out. He was like: 'No reason, I'm just out, man'."

Ms Rewan does not remember anything about the accident other than: "I just got in the back of the car and, cool, we were talking."

She woke up in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital with a broken neck, massive gash along the top of her head and forehead, torn lip and chin, smashed teeth, broken knee and broken toe.

Her hair was so thick with blood it was 'harder than Brillo'.

She was flown to Massachusetts General Hospital, where doctors said she had a hangman's fracture: the break was in the back of her neck.

"I broke it clean. How I broke it, they were amazed. They told me I'm not supposed to be alive," she said.

A large metal halo was screwed into her skull to allow the bone to reform, and she must continue to wear it now she's returned to Bermuda. She also has a permanent pin in her knee.

She's regaining strength with physiotherapy treatment at the same KEMH department where she worked as a receptionist before the accident.

Ms Rewan is from a Christian family and says her faith has helped keep her strong, even though she has been totally dependent since the accident and can't look after her children Jahfari, Jahkera and Ayana Tucker, aged 12, nine and seven.

"At first it was: 'Oh my God.' It was terrible, as much as I kept strong," she said.

"One minute I'm so independent, the next I'm so dependent on everybody else.

"Somebody has to get me a bath, get my food, I don't have my children. It's hard. It was just like: whoosh. My life's turning.

"God did this to me to show he's real, he exists. I just have to go through it.

"Life is too short. My life flashed in the blink of an eye. I don't even know if I died and came back to life.

"I never really was a complainer but: paying bills, working nine to five, by the time you get your pay cheque it's gone — all of that.

"Now I look at life and I think you just have to make the best of it because you never know. I just do what I have to do.

"First I have to thank God, because without him I wouldn't be here."

The halo comes off in a couple of weeks. It's too early to say whether the injuries will ever completely mend but Ms Rewan believes by keeping her spirits up she is giving herself the best chance.

"Emotionally it's been hard; financially it's been hard; physically it's been hard; all of the above it's been hard because I don't know what's going to come out of this," she said.

"But my character is still the same. I didn't let it change me. I just want to say thank you to God, to my family and friends, my Ord Road family and everyone that prayed for me. And especially to Yogi and Honest."