When I was 10, I was riding bikes with a neighborhood friend down a
steep hill in my backyard. We’d take turns being daredevils and during
one of my turns to take off down the hill, the chain on my bike slipped
off, forcing me to take a detour over to the side.
A mere 10 seconds after I had made it over to the side, my friend
flew past me on her bike without waiting for me to give her the signal
at the bottom of the hill that I was safely out of the way–come to find
out, she had lost control of her brakes.
If I had not moved over to the side, the force of impact would have sent me over the side of the hill and in bad shape.
I may have only been 10, but I remember that day like it was
yesterday–I also remember having this chill pass over me like a guardian
angel was to blame for my chain coming loose on my bike–allowing me to
avoid an otherwise dangerous situation.
Cheesy, maybe–but I know that I’ve kept my guardian angel busy ever
since. There have been many instances, I’m sure, that I haven’t even
noticed that I’ve been kept out of harms way.
But I do know that that angel was with me again last night because
last night we got to take our nightly walk an hour earlier than usual,
due a mini cold front came through the Carolinas yesterday.
When we were about half way through the walk, we decided to jog a bit
and it was right when we came to a curve in the road where we are
always careful to watch for traffic due to a blind spot. As we started
to make our way up the hill out of the curve, we heard the screeching of
breaks and turned around to see a car come barreling towards us. The
driver over-corrected twice and ended up missing us by a few
yards…ending up lodged between two trees in a ditch. Had the tree not
been there, the car would have flipped with her and her child inside.
She had been going at least 50 in a 25mph zone.
That moment happened where our brains took a moment to process what
had just happened. It seemed like minutes passed before we made our legs
move to take off running towards the car to help. We scanned the car
quickly–seeing the child in the backseat and the driver frantically
waving us away mouthing that she was OK. I had the “movie-moment”
where I panicked that the car was going to burst into flames due to the
increasing smell of gas. She continued to wave us away–and we weren’t
quite sure what to do. Another car approached us–and it was family or
friends of the driver–they didnt want to speak to us much either just
saying that they would be fine. We are pretty sure it ended up being a
shady situation where she got the kid out of the car and away from the
accident before the cops got there.
As we made our way back up the hill, our adrenaline was pumping as the reality of the timing of the whole situation played out in our minds. We really were so close to being in the direct path of her swerve.
What had made me decide to tell Mook to jog those few yards when we
usually are just comfortable walking? I’m just so glad we did. I’ve made
sure to assure my guardian angel she has the rest of the weekend off.
