It is a night they will never forget: January 27, 2008.
"It was shortly after midnight," said Tim Gifford. “It was cold. It was a very damp night."
"I remember seeing headlights flying at my face,” said Monica Durban. “I remember the sound of my car grinding into a ball." Durban, a 20-year-old Ohio State University student, was on her way home when an out-of-control driver crossed into her lane.
"Monica's car was sitting in the middle of the freeway, just completely demolished,” said Gifford. He was one of the Columbus Firefighters first on the scene and recalled her condition was grave.
Gifford did what he could at the crash site and got her to the hospital, where the prognosis was just as dire; Monica had suffered a shearing brain injury and lay in a coma for months. There would be years of therapy and hard work to reclaim her body and her life.
"I've defied all odds,” she said. “I'm working, going to school, walking. And I just keep moving ahead. I don't look back, I look forward. And I keep going forward because of that."
But even all these years later, both Monica and Tim wondered about each other.
"That kind of thing sticks with you,” said Gifford.
"I've thought about that every day,” said Durban. “I've thought about meeting the men that pulled me out of my car. I wanted to meet them so bad."
And last week, she did.
"Oh my God,” she wept, as she and Gifford hugged. “Thank you."
"It's because of him I'm sitting here talking [about the crash],” she said. “And it was such an honor to meet him."
Even Gifford, the 22-year veteran of the Fire Division, was moved to tears.
"I don't think you're ever totally hardened,” he said. “These are people that you deal with. So how do you not care for people?"
Friday wasn't just a reunion, but a chance for Monica and her family to share her story with the next generation of first responders, the incoming recruit class of the Columbus Division of Fire.
“We are blessed to have people out there like you,” Monica’s father Lee told the recruits.
"I hope it lets them see the potential fruit of their labors,” said Gifford. “That they can make a difference, that they will make a difference."
"I want them to remember, what they do matters," added Monica."I'm just a little person they rescued, not a firefighter. But I fight for life, and hope they see that I have that fight because of them.”
10TV has chronicled Monica Durban's fight for survival since the crash: