Occasionally in life, one goes through certain struggles. When those struggles involve family, it really makes you stop and assess everything.
A week ago, my oldest daughter was in an auto accident. The rear driver-side tire blew. She went into a spin on a normally busy freeway, and the front end impacted the concrete dividing wall as she spun.
It was her lucky day. No other cars were involved, and she got to walk away from the accident. She chipped a couple of teeth, and suffered from concussion symptoms for several days, but that’s it.
For the few days following the accident, I felt sick to my stomach. The mind can’t help but wonder what might have been if there had been traffic in the neighboring lanes, if the woman behind her had been texting instead of attentive, if she was’t wearing her seat belt, or if the tire on the opposite side had blown instead. With the latter, the spin would have thrown her into the concrete barrier hard instead of merely shearing the front end. Rather than waiting in the library for her to finish her classes at ASU, I could have been burying a child. It’s very sobering.