Today has been a terrible day.
It started with a phone call from my 14 year old daughter. She was at my mother’s house who lives a couple of blocks from us. I had been trying to locate her (my daughter) because she hadn’t come home from school yet.
When she called I was pretty angry at her and started in with “Where the hell have you been?!” She told me she was trying to find out what had happened to Sarah.
Still angry I said “Sarah who?”
“Sarah, Tina’s Sarah.”
Sarah is the 7 year old daughter of a family friend Tina who lives in the same complex as my mother. We’ve known them well for about 13 years.
“What happened to Sarah?” I ask. Not really thinking it could be too terribly bad.
“She was hit by a car!” she tells me and starts to cry.
“Oh my God! Is she O.K.?”
“I don’t know. The police made me leave.” She is sobbing now.
I get off the phone with my daughter to call my husband who was picking up our other 2 daughters who attend the same elementary school as Sarah does.
My husband walks in the door as I am dialing his cell phone and I tell him what happened. He then tells me he had seen Sarah walking home and had thought it was strange (she is supposed to be bussed home) but he figured that she wouldn’t be walking if she wasn’t supposed to be.
Well, she wasn’t supposed to be. Apparently there had been a breakdown in the supervision of the bussing area and she slipped out with a group of students who walk home.
By the time she got to where she would cross to get home she was alone. So, she crossed a very busy, very dangerous road and was hit by an oncoming car as the bus with her twin brother on it, the one she was supposed to be on, pulled up.
So as we sit right now, she is in our city’s major trauma hospital, on a ventilator, comatose, with bleeding in the brain. The doctors say it is a small bleed and will likely dissipate leaving little or no damage. One can only hope.
My husband is feeling terribly guilty. He talked to Tina and apologized. She tried to assure him that he had nothing to apologize for. But he keeps saying, “I should have just stopped and picked her up.” "I should have known she wasn’t supposed to be walking home. " Right now I’m not sure there is anything anyone can say that would make him feel better.
Anyway, this is really neither mundane nor pointless but if it wouldn’t be too much trouble too ask for prayers, positive thoughts and good wishes sent Sarah’s and her family’s way it would be greatly appreciated.
Jen