Watch Out for That Car!!!

By Chris
At lunchtime today, I took Nick to get some gas for his weedwacker (Thursday is his busy day for lawn cutting). A block from the gas station, we spotted a car coming. On OUR side of the street. At first, it looked like she was going around a parked car. "Hmmm. She sure is taking a while getting over," I thought. She kept approaching, still on our side of the road. I slowed down a little, then alot. Honk the horn . . . hold on Nick. BAM! She didn't even slow down . . .until she hit us . . . going about 25 mph, which makes a pretty good jolt, and apparently makes plenty of noise. A bunch of people came out of their houses right away. Checked on Nick . . . he said he wasn't hurt, but I knew he would get upset. He worries about getting in car accidents and I was sure this was making him very uneasy. I got out to check on the lady who hit us. She had her eyes closed, hands on the wheel, unresponsive . . . but not really unconscious. Not really looking injured either, though. Fortunately, one of the people nearby was a hospital chaplain, who was very good with her . . . trying to talk to her and figure out what was wrong. Soon, a firetruck, ambulance and police were coming, sirens blowing, which attracted a big crowd from the neighborhood (we were still in Norfolk Highlands, our neighborhood. Teresa was there, and so was Jimmy, my father-in-law, by this point. We were a block away from my parents house, right in front of the elementary school. Within minutes, Nick had his former PE teacher and cafeteria worker giving him hugs . . . which he needed. Norfolk Highlands is neat like that. He hasn't been at that school for over a year, but they are close-knit in the neighborhood and the school, and they remembered him very well. Ends up that, apparently, the other driver had some type of diabetic episode, right as we were passing. The ambulance took her to the hospital. I told Teresa if we had passed there just one minute earlier, or later, the car would not have hit us. In typical Teresa form, she remembered that there were kids in the yard just past the collission, and that they are always out there. She said they were probably there when it happened, and if she had not hit us, she may kept going off the road and hit them. "And who knows what might have happened to her if she didn't hit you." She could have hit a tree, telphone pole, or house, even if she didn't hit the kids. True. Thank you, Lord! Nick and I are fine . . . just a little bit tight in my back. We'll pray that the young lady is o.k. and thank God that we are.

Ben came with Teresa to the scene, and he, of course, loved all the action with the emergency vehicls and crashed cars . . . right up his ally . . . a true Norfolk Highlands kid, I guess. Both cars were towed. Geico was very helpful, and we'll have a rental until everything is fixed.

And about Teresa, who loves her Caravan. She admitted that she was thinking all about us until she got to the driveway and realized I took her car . . . not mine. Hehehe.