A Day Derailed
Life can turn in an instant. One minute you can be happily driving along and the next your car can be smashed into a wall and you can be sitting in the driver’s seat with a sore head and chest and feeling dazed, wondering what happened. That’s exactly what happened to me last Friday.
I was driving along Harbour Road on my way to a friend’s house. It’s a very narrow road that has walls right to the edge on the sides. I was not driving fast to begin with (one can’t really, on Harbour Road) and when I saw my turn coming up, I slowed down. Suddenly, BAM! the left front side of my car was rammed at an angle against a lamp post and the wall. My first thought was “What happened?! What did I do?” I could see the pole and the wall, I could see that my car was mushed into them, but I had no idea how it had gotten there. It was a bizarre and surreal feeling. After retrieving my glasses, which had flown off, I tried to reverse to straighten the car, but it wouldn’t move. I opened the door and stepped out, noticing that several people behind me had stopped and gotten out of their vehicles.
“Are you okay?” “What happened?” One woman came up to me, touched my shoulder and asked if she should take me to the hospital. A man who had been riding his scooter behind me said he saw the tire blow and that’s what caused the car to do that. I was pretty shaken up, my lip felt swollen, my face hurt and my chest hurt. These are all places that had come in contact with the steering wheel or been thrust against the seat belt. People pointed out the seat belt “burn” on my neck.
Everybody who stopped were very kind. Three guys lifted the back end of the car to move it off the other lane (supermen!), one guy called the police and one guy stayed to direct traffic around my car. I phoned the friend whose house I had been going to and she called a tow truck and then came to help. Another friend who happened to be driving by saw what had happened and stopped to give me a hug and make sure I was all right. The police who came were considerate and sympathetic. The tow truck driver was solicitous and supportive.
When I started to write this post, I wanted to tell about the accident itself. But I just realized that what I am really writing about is the kindness of strangers, the thoughtfulness of friends, and the compassion of people in general. My experience on Friday showed me that when someone is in trouble, people come through. They help. Even now, almost a week later while I’m still bruised and in pain, friends, casual acquaintances, and even Facebook contacts take the time to make sure I’m okay, to try to help me feel better.
We hear so much negative news that it’s important to remember that there are many positives in our world. Those positives are generated by people like you and me. My accident was certainly a negative experience, but the people around me made it bearable. Thank you humankind.
