15 minutes of sheer terror...

Yesterday Molly and her GBF (gentle boyfriend) met the dad at little one's soccer game. It was way down our mountain in the city where Molly lives with GBF. The plan was that all would drive back home for a big dinner that I was making, and then dad and I would go on to work and little one would head home with Molly and GBF for a sleep over. The dad rarely works at night and it rarely ever happens that we are both gone at the same time....so this was our solution.

I left a little earlier than the kids to do some errands and meet my girl for a cup of coffee....the three were hanging out, watching tv, eating, doing whatever they like to do when all home together. About an hour or so after I left, a friend called me and said there was a big car accident on a RD near my house that we use numerous times each day to get in and out of our neighborhood. She wanted to know if I was ok. "Yes, yes, I am fine....but let me check on Molly etc."

Thus began my 15 minutes...I called each of the three. No answer. I texted, no answer. I waited and tried again. No answer. We live in a small town and if something awful happens it is immediately spread all over the place....thanks to FB. We have a "watch page" for our area and anything that happens, forest fires, car wrecks, robberies, etc, are all posted there right away and people ask questions, share info. So I checked the page and it had a post about the car wreck.....the car had come around the curve, hit a tree and landed in a pasture. I know exactly where every pasture is on that road. I could see this in my mind.....then I read these words, "2 adults deceased, 1 surviving child." My girl and I both gasped...."what do we do? How do we find out what kind of car it is? Ok ok ok, its probably not them. We are over reacting. Ok, I am over reacting. Its not them, it can't be them." I was shaking like a leaf and felt sick.

I, being the crazy woman that I am.....could just see all of this! Molly and GBF dead and little one clinging to life laying in a pasture surrounded by strangers. My shy little girl. 

I called my friend back and she was sending someone to drive over and see what kind of car it was. I was calling the highway patrol to see if they would tell me.....when my phone rang.

Me: OMG!!!! Your ok! Your alive?!"

GBF: What? What happened?

Me: I tell him the whole story....

GBF: Oh, we're fine. We were just playing with the puppies.

Little one called me, "Well mom, it wasn't us. We are all fine. " In her solid practical manner. Then Molly gets on, "Awwww mama....I hear you got scared. We're all ok."

Shit.

Do normal people do this stuff? I don't know...I don't really care I guess. I could blame it on the years of waiting for the other shoe to drop, the years of middle of the night phone calls...thinking that its going to be THAT phone call....I am conditioned to think in terms of tragedy. It couldn't possibly be anything else. However, I have to admit, rather than it being any of that....I think its just me. 

In my defense they missed this accident by mere minutes....as they were heading down the mountain, they passed the ambulances and fire trucks rushing up the hill. It reminds me of the movie Crash with Sandra Bullock....all of these lives going on and then they all intersect.

As to the accident victims....it ends up it was 2 young men, no child. Both young men were killed. My heart breaks for the parents of those two cherished boys. Two families lives were changed forever last night and they of course are in my prayers.

Oh Lord....just another day in the life of crazy me.
Annette