Saturday started out normal enough around our home. Craig had gotten our lawn mower back from the repair shop the night before and was spending the day mowing and doing all our spring yard work before our neighbors held an intervention (due to the mower needing repaired, our yard hadn't been able to get mowed yet, this spring. It was looking a bit wild;) Gracie and Hannah had dedicated the day to scrubbing all the critter cages. And I.... well, I was running a couple errands before I'd planned to tackle some laundry and housework. Sarah's phone hasn't been working, so I met her at Verizon in-between her shifts, to try to get it working again (it's only 6 months old), but there was no saving that phone; she needed to have it replaced. Being a T1D mama and relying on her phone to be working so that her dexcom CGM would continue to give us all of her BG readings, I opted to drive up to the Apple store in Omaha to get it replaced rather than wait for Verizon to mail her a replacement. I called Craig and told him my plan, and bemoaned the fact that I'd be missing the Kentucky Derby, so could he please record it for me; then off to Omaha I went.
Just me and Princess Margaret (our GPS) along with some country music..... alone. This NEVER happens.....Little did I realize then how thankful I'd be that everyone else was safely working away at home. I looked at my gas gauge and opted to get gas in Omaha (cheaper there), knowing I had enough to make it. Driving along, enjoying the perfect spring weather in Nebraska. I come upon an intersection in Elkhorn, as soon as I enter the intersection the light turns yellow, but I'm in the intersection so I continue on, as I should.... then I see it. A white car turning left, right in front of me! OH CRAP!!!! I glance in my right, rear view mirror, no car... I veer to the right to try to avoid that car, slamming on my brakes, and praying the car stops coming at me. There is nothing else I can do... my foot has the brake pedal down and isn't letting up..."Please God, let him stop!!!!" Then that horrid sound of exploding airbags, cracking glass, and crunching metal.... The smell!!! Smoke! And my Sequoia is still moving, but my foot is still on the brake pedal...."Please God, don't let me hit that light pole!" Lucy finally stops
It's hard to breath. Why is there smoke? This is not what I expected airbags to look like. My car is sloping forward, downhill. I need to call 911. Where's my phone??? Why won't my door open????
Panic starts to build, but then I see a man in a light blue shirt and a bald head. "Are you ok?" He asks. "I think so, but I can't get my door open. I need to call 911" He tells me he's already calling them, and right then I see the County Sheriff pull up. The man in the light blue shirt fights to get my door open...then I never see him again. The sheriff's deputy comes over to see if I'm ok, I tell him I'm an asthmatic and need my inhaler but it's in my purse which was on the floor and I can't get to it. He comes around and is able to yank the door open, gives me my purse, and I tell him all my info is in the glove compartment and he's welcome to get it (again, I can't reach it). I ask if the other driver is ok and I am told he is, he's just really shaken up.
There are eye witnesses and they graciously stuck around to 1- help if needed and 2- tell the deputy what they saw. I call Craig and tell him what happened. I send him a pin of my location. Then the Deputy asks me what happened. "I was driving and the light turned yellow when I was in the intersection, then the other car turned right in front of me. I slammed on my brakes and did everything I could, but he just kept coming" That was consistent to what the eye witnesses had told him. I look over and see a young man, white as a sheet, on the phone with (I assumed ) his parents or insurance. I sat down on the cement support around that light pole I was praying desperately about and told him it was fine, he should sit as well. I look up and see his mom arrive. My heart ached for her.....this is THE phone call every parent dreads. and I'm sure when she pulled up and saw her son's car un-drivable with airbags deployed, it shook her to the core. I asked her if he was ok, she said he was; he was really sad and shaken up...he told her "Mom, I thought I had time..." a mistake that an inexperienced driver easily makes. One I'm sure he will never forget. We both walked away from that accident, thankfully. I don't know about him, but I'm super sore and have had a headache from the pain since. I have a doctor appointment tomorrow to make sure it's just jarred up old bones and hopefully nothing more. But poor Lucy..... she gave all she had to keep me safe.
We have had Lucy for years. We've driven her all over the country; she's even taken us to Disney World twice. We've toted kids, animals, critters of all sorts in her. We LOVED that sequoia! And today, we are sad to know that she is no more. I hope her successor is as reliable in the future as she was for all the years we had her....her successor has a lot to live up to :)
Yesterday, I asked the girls how they felt when Daddy told them "Let's go. Mom's been in an accident" Gracie told me that all he said was "let's go" then told them a few minutes later, after pinpointing where I was, what had happened. Hannah spoke up and said "I don't want this to sound bad, Mom, but I wasn't really worried about you because I figure you're indestructible. I was worried about Lucy though, and was afraid that this might be it for her" She has always been the child that makes me laugh at the most inopportune things ;) Apparently though, (at least this time) she was right... I'd debate the "indestructible" part though, as I'm moving kinda slow and feeling it a bit too much ;)
RIP LUCY We loved you!
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