The inevitable life in perspective moment
(If you don't want to be bummed out for the holidays, feel free to skip this post)
I came home tonight ready to tell my wife about the marginally successful evening I had playing poker at the casino. My news immediately became irrelevant when she gave me the news that one of her best friends - she's named after my wife's grandmother, she gave a toast at our wedding - had been in a horrible car accident. She is alive, and apparently quite fortunate to be so.
Based on what we know she had stopped at a red light but the car behind her did not. But rather than the typical tap when someone misses a red light, the car behind her was going full speed and obviously wasn't prepared to stop. She is in intensive care right now although doctor's are giving her a good chance to survive. That said, she did suffer a bruised spine, several broken vertebrae - one of which was so severely crushed that the doctors had to pick the pieces out to remove it completely. She has had an iron rod inserted into her back, a rod which will almost completely limit her ability to move her head up and down. Thankfully she doesn't seem to be facing paralysis, although her hands have not been responding well. She could be in the hospital for a month; after that she will undergo a year's worth of physical therapy and rehabilitation. She can't go back to work for a year.
This woman is one of the most outgoing people I have ever met. She works very hard, the only way she knows how. As is often the case with hard-working, outgoing types she's also a bit high-strung and restless. The fate she is staring down is not one I would wish on anyone, but she is that much more unequipped for a life so limited by her own body. She is fortunate to have a husband that does love her and is very much time type that could handle having to help her do just about everything, but that doesn't help make the whole situation any less horrifying.
Added to the ache I feel for these people and the joy I feel for the arbitrary fortune/blessing of my own life, I'm not sure I ever want to set foot in a car ever again. I'd like to think most car accidents are quite avoidable, but what do you do when a car slams into you at a red light? Even if you looked in the rear-view mirror and saw it happening, there's nothing you could actually do to remove yourself from harm's way. But tomorrow I'll get in my car. And the next day.
Pay attention.
Posted by Joel at 12/24/2005 02:17:00 AM
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