This is an account of a just a few moments. Moments that will always be with me.
Ground into my memory forever. A voice to remind me of what I have, even at the times I could almost kill her, the voice is there calling my mind back to remembrance; nagging me to stop and appreciate that she is even here for me to argue with, push against, and in the end still have an assurance of her love. For those are the reasons a mother is here, to keep you in line and yet pour out her love for you unconditionally.
I remember everything so clearly as if it were yesterday, although it’s been almost
three years now. I’m not sure about the exact date. All I know is that it was sometime in June, summer after fifth grade. I had home schooled that past year to focus more on my figure skating which I was intent on at that time. It was about 2 o’clock and I had had a good practice at the rink, but was ready to come home. Now, since I was homeschooling I had naturally taken more time off for vacation and slept in later everyday so although it was well into summer, here I was still hittin the books everyday. She had just picked me up, that’s my mother I’m referring to, and we were headed home to pick up her phone she had left there that morning on the way out. I’ve heard sometimes that when something big, whether it is tragic or happy is going to happen, people get a sense for it. Almost like when you know there is a storm coming simply because you feel it in the air or smell just the slightest hint of rain. I think it might be God’s little warning to us humans down here, something to tell us what’s ahead, not necessarily for us to avoid it, but rather to give us time to prepare. Well I suppose I know now that that gesture of kindness, grace, or whatever you want to call it is not the for everyone because on this particular day I hadn’t the slightest idea.
It seemed like any other ordinary day. Some low music on, the window slightly
cracked, and the air conditioning blasting as high as it could go in the beat up old car we had borrowed because ours was in the shop. I was buried in my history book, determined to finish before we got home. Traffic wasn’t bad and we hadn’t gone more than a mile before I heard a slight gasp and looked up to see a black jaguar pull in front of us. The next thing I knew my body jerked forward and I felt my head slam into the sun visor and then back again into the seat as if it were being wrenched off my neck. Then it was over. Quiet seemed to settle around me, besides the continuous cough of my own lungs fighting the smoke that now seemed everywhere. I saw my mom bolting around the car and trying to get my door open. It was almost as if my world was in slow motion for just a second or two before I snapped back and kicked as hard as I could at the stubborn door. It didn’t open, but budged enough for me to squeeze out. My mom and I simply collapsed onto the pavement and then really I saw her. She had some cuts, but the biggest thing was that her hand was three times its normal size and purple except for the few red marks of blood that trickled down it. She had laid down now and with her eyes closed she whispered to me in an almost calm voice except with a near undetectable note of hysteria. “Hurry” she said, “pray for me, I can’t see, and quick call an ambulance!”
At this time, the devil of a woman who we had hit was out of her car and yelling at
us about her jaguar! I begged her to call an ambulance quick, but she simply refused. Finally a car stopped and asked if they should call 911. I was frantic by this point and asked to use the passenger’s phone while the driver called. First I called my dad and told him to hurry and come and then I called a good friend of my mom’s which is also my friend’s mom. I told her what had happened and to meet us at St. Francis. She didn’t believe me at first and thought I was a prank caller until I guess she finally recognized my voice or maybe just heard the panic that couldn’t be mimicked in a prank. In any case she was coming and now all I could do was wait on the ambulance. It seemed like everything had just stopped in the world during those few moments. No longer did I hear the cars whiz by or feel the hot humid air press down on me. Some people say they have flashbacks in moments like these, however my mind didn’t give me the pleasure of revisiting my happiest moments; I was rather pleading with myself that this wasn’t reality, it just couldn’t be.
When the ambulance finally arrived after what seemed an eternity, my fears
were confirmed as the nurses swarmed her shouting “we’re losing her, hurry get her on oxygen and a stretcher, she’s shutting down!” It’s not that anything really awful had happened. Besides a broken wrist and some cuts and bruises she was essentially fine except that she had gone into shock, a state that I was entirely unaware was fatal. You see her organs were shutting down one bye one. First her eyesight and it was a matter of minutes before a big one quit. It’s weird that just like that we can go. Have the life sucked out of us and simply because we just can’t handle too sudden of an event. If you think about it too much it’s kind of scary that we’re so easily broken, so utterly helpless and fragile.
I’m sure your wondering how through all this I was fine except some whiplash
and bruises, well that is because in that very second before we hit, my mom’s instinct kicked in. Her one will to protect her children and she turned ever so slightly so that she took the brunt of the hit. Just to prove it the windshield was broken and cracked on her side, not because of the other car, but because my mom’s own hand cracked through it. That is a perfect example of a mother’s love for her kids, to put herself in more danger to help save me. When we got to the hospital her teeth were chattering uncontrollably but her vision had come back and she was puling through. This wasn’t the end.
Even though everything turned out okay and now she is healthy and nobody
would ever know how close she was, I know and for some reason I think it might have been a good thing. Something of a wake up call just to remind me to be thankful for her even when we fight sometimes. That is why I told you this. Not for a good story, but because I want you as well to realize what is really important in this world. Money and material things will come and be gone but people are what matter the most. Please take time to cherish them; they can be lost in the blink of eye.