I got one of those dreaded phone calls last week.
I had sent my son off to horse day camp just an hour earlier. Because the camp is about 30 minutes from our house, and nine kids from our neighborhood were participating, we had arranged an elaborate car pool for the week, with two parents driving one way each day.
“Anne, have you heard anything?” my friend Kelly, mother of two girls also attending the camp, asked me when I picked up the phone.
“No,” I managed to answer.
“Well everyone’s okay, but…”
In the instant before she could tell me what had actually happened, my heart started racing, my adrenalin kicked up 10 notches, and I imagined the worst – a car accident, or one of the kids getting kicked in the head by a horse.
“…Kitty’s car caught on fire while she was driving on the freeway,” Kelly continued, “They all managed to get out and get away safely, but the car is totaled.”
Thankfully the other driver in the car pool was driving behind Kitty and noticed the sparks underneath the van. She pulled up next to Kitty and motioned for her to pull over. Kitty wasn’t able to stop immediately because of construction on the shoulder of the freeway, and by time she pulled over, flames were emerging from the bottom of the car.
She kept her head, told the five kids she was transporting to quickly get out of the car, and marched with them up the hillside, a safe distance from the burning vehicle, before calling 911.
Kitty, in her usual self-effacing way, feels bad that the kids’ backpacks, with lunchboxes, coats and extra shoes, burned along with the car.
We all think she’s a hero for saving our kids’ lives.
And we all thought that day of how your entire life can change in an instant, and how precious the uneventful details of life can be, like sending your kids off to camp and having them come home safe and sound a few hours later.
Posted by Anne

July 20th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized