Now that a week has passed, I'm calm enough to blog about this experience. Thursday last, we had some coworkers in from the US, and we took them to dinner. We parked in Brackley (our closest town) and needed to cross High Street to get to our favourite restaurant. Livia ran ahead about 40 feet in front of us to the crosswalk, pushed the button, and waited for the light to change. As soon as the light changed and the Green Man appeared, Livia began to cross. And from our distance we watched as an on-coming car continued full-speed towards the crossing despite the red light. We yelled to Livia and had only the ability to watch as she froze in the headlights; and at the last minute this car slammed on the brakes, the sound of squealing tires drowning out the crossing bleeping.
The car stopped within mere feet of my baby.
We all ran up, swooped her along (by this time the Green Man was flashing that our time to cross was almost over), and hurried away. I didn't feel anger towards the driver, only sheer terror. The agony is that Livia did everything she was supposed to do. We can teach our children everything that they need to be safe, and then there will be things that we and they can't control.
We tried to make excuses: "Livia this is why you can't run ahead," and "These are the things we've warned you about for when we go to Mexico." But at dinner, I had to lean over and whisper this horrible truth, "You were right and the driver was wrong, but that isn't enough."
I have the privilege of teaching Sunday School this Sunday, and one of the points of the lesson is the concept that even after all that we can do, it is still only by grace that we are saved. From an eternal perspective, this is comforting and awesome.
But in this temporal sphere, the phrase goes more like, "Even after all that we can do, it is only by luck, fate, chance that we are spared excruciating sorrow." And that scares the hell out me.
"The person you love is a hostage ~ a hostage to fate." --Anne Morrow Lindbergh
4 comments:
everyone is glad that Livia is safe. It would have been a serious dampener to the evening if she'd been hit by the car. Seriously though I was as relieved as only another parent in that situation can know.
I disagree slightly with Jenny here, Livia didn't do everything she was supposed to. She didn't look for cars before crossing. I don't say this to start an argument or be petty. We might not have emphasized that bit before, but we will now.
Reminds me of a saying my mom had when she was driving. You might be right, but don't be dead right. Truth.
On a lighter note, today marks the first time everyone in the house has played guitar hero. Livia is still only getting around 50% on easy songs, and Lena is in the 60% range, so they're getting better. =)
Kelly told me about this blog. Holy Cow. We are all SO glad that Livia is fine. And she may only be getting half of the notes correct on the Wii, but she sings ALL of the notes and knows ALL of the words to her choir songs. Let's just say, Livia pretty much took home the gold for her entire chorus.
Kira,
That's why I don't go to these performances if I can help it. I sit there beet red with embrassment that Livia is louder than everyone else combined -- in a choir of 40. But I was proud of my girls.
(Note for everyone else: Lena, Livia, and Kira's Princess L were all in a choir festival Friday where their school's choirs won the day.)
wow
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