More Life Lessons Learned Late

Just because you or someone you love has Lou Gherig's, doesn't mean life stops.  Things still happen.  Children from the far side of the world decide to move back home.  The family business must be attended to and sometimes truck tires come flying down the super and hit your front fender.

The last thing happened to us on the way home from Durham VA Medical Center.  It was at the cusp of rush hour.  I was on the inner third lane and there was no where to go.  So I remembered our sailing days when something happens that could lose lives.  I grabbed the tiller of the Dodge Caravan and stayed on course.  I had seen the tire pop off the truck, whether it was on the flatbed or on an axle I cannot say, but it disengaged and barreled toward us at a phenomenal speed.  The trajectory was such that I knew it would either have missed us by an inch or nailed the right front quarter of the van. It did the latter, and only later did we both wonder why the airbags didn't deploy and that was one of the many blessings that occurred in those 5 seconds.  No one else was hit, the state trooper surmised it bounced off us and sailed over the other cars and  into the woods of Hillsborough. We were able to hobble off the highway, as the other drivers realized what had happened and slowed down to let us cross three lanes onto the shoulder.

And then of course, the comedy began.  I couldn't find the hazard button.  Pat had no idea where it was either.  While I called 911, we were both frantically searching for it.  As I was describing the incident to the dispatcher, (and why do they always want to know what color the car is?)  Pat found it. Unfortunately, that day his voice didn't work too well and I couldn't understand what he was saying. He was strapped in  the Permobile in the back. He couldn't lean forward and he can't raised his arms to point.  At this point I was laughing at the whole thing while trying to talk to 911. How could we manage to survive the impact, but not be able to find the hazard button?   Finally, after great effort he was able to communicate to me where it was located and we  settled in and waited for Trooper AJ Gurney, a handsome fellow who was quite kind.

Life doesn't stop and neither do blessings.  If the airbags had deployed, I think many people could have been hurt. I couldn't have controlled that tank of a van and I would have slammed into another car. It was a beautiful clear fall day so the other drivers could see what happened. We had a sweet tow fellow and trooper who helped get Pat out of the van safely. We have daughters who live near enough to come rescue us when things like this happen. And they bring grandsons who are always so interested in crashes and crackups, the conversation is never allowed to get maudlin.

When we first got news about Pat's ALS, I thought I heard a burglar one night.  I was lying in bed and I thought, "go ahead kill us and take everything."  That is known as despair and at that lowest point,  I probably felt closer to Judas than Jesus.  The feeling soon passed and every day since, we feel blessed by life and living.  Some days we feel more blessed than others.