Things you never want to hear
There are two things you can never really prepare yourself for: death and accidents. As much as I drive on the 101 and the 405, I see accidents almost every day. I've had a few close calls myself on the freeway, but I never thought it would happen to one of us, especially near my house.
At 8:15pm my dad left for work. As usual I said goodbye and he came back a minute later to remind my brother to take out the garbage and left. Ten minutes later our phone rang and it sounded like my dad, but he already hung up. I made no second guess about it until I hear my sister yell "Ate" (pronounced 'ah teh' means older sister) from upstairs. I hoped I was hearing things and that it was the TV, but sure enough here she cam running down the stairs and continued "Ate, Tatay (dad) got into a car accident" and my heart stopped.
It was less than ten minutes when he left and he got into a car accident. I was in shock and my mind began thinking of horrible things. My sister said he was okay, but we needed to pick him up near by. My sister and I left and I told my brother to stay behind since my mom would be coming home soon. We left and didn't know where the accident was. Sheryl said to look for the sirens. Sure enough, as soon as we got out of our little subdivision, there were a ton of red and blue lights.
I turned my hazard lights on and my sister walked up to the police. I immediately saw the Jeep spun around the opposite direction to where my dad was going. I was horrified thinking just how much damage there was and how fast the other car was going. I then walked up to the police and asked where my dad was. I was so relived to see my dad relatively unharmed talking to the medical personnel and police. My dad was the one who dialed 911.
Apparently as my dad was heading straight, the other car was at a stop and pulled forward and I guess kept going even though she was supposed to wait for the traffic to clear before proceeding. My dad tried to avoid the collision by turning right, but he still got hit and the other car flew the opposite direction. After seeing all the lights ambulance and shards of glass everywhere along with the Jeep's bumper on the floor I looked for the other party to see how they were. I saw one of the kids on a stretcher and the other child and mom being pulled out of the car also in stretchers. The two young girls were not wearing a seat belt. Based on the clean cut observation, the other car was at fault and unforunately suffered alot of damage. My dad felt bad for the children especially when he heard them scream and cry as the cars collided. He said the kids, since they were not buckled in, flew out of their seats and slammed into the windshield. I saw the windshield and it was smashed like someone dropped a bowling ball on top of it. My dad said the girls were bleeding. I guess from the shards of glass. I hope the family is okay. Not to make light of the other family's situation, but I'm so thankful my dad wasn't seriously hurt.
What I was scared about was telling my mom. She was about to be home soon and getting a call like that will just freak her out. My sister got hold of her as soon as we got to the hospital and my mom came in with a frightend look on her face. She was so relieved to see my dad okay. He suffered some whiplash, back pain and his arm and wrists are in pain as well. I guess because of the impact. The airbags didn't deflate either, so he hit his head on the rear view mirror. Otherwise, no cuts or anything like that. As for the car, well the body is fine, but the bumper and a portion of the left front part is smashed off completely. Who knows when we'll be able to get that car fixed. Luckily we have four cars. At the moment though, we only have two cars usable, so this will certainly change my week schedule.
To make matters worse, there were other misforunes that happend over this weekend that overshadowed many events. Although two happy occasions happened, a wedding and a 90th birthday, two deaths also took place. Yesterday crcocodile enthusiast turned celebrity Steve Irwin died from a sting ray poison. He was dead on the spot. I couldn't believe it when my sister told me. She looked online to confirm it and it was true. Everyone is in disbelief including myself. He was only 42. A life without the Crocodile Hunter seems a bit more empty :( Also today marked the day of when my cousin and his family would leave California and move to Minessotta. I was even going to help them finish packing this evening, but my dad got into an accident.
My cousin and his wife have postponed their leave suddenly after getting a call from his mom's side of the family. My cousin's mother left him to his father's (my uncle's) care and eventually lost contact with our family. My cousin was raised by our grandmother. We just finished celebrating/commemorating her 40th day of death this past Aug 17th. Now we finally get a call saying that his birth bother died from stroke. He hasn't seen his mother since he was a baby and now she is dead. First his acting mother dies and now his birthmother dies. This isn't a very happy time for my family. His father, who is now remarried also was hospitalized yesterday because of contracting some kind of virus and was really ill. I don't know why this is all happening at the same time or why my cousin's mother never tried to contact her son or our family. They never moved. They never changed phone numbers. We always made her son readily available to her, but she just let him be and continued with her own new family.
Now that all of this has happened, I know I should be sad or even angry, but you know I'm not. Despite all of these "series of unfortunate events" I am still very thankful to God for sparing my dad and watching over him, for my mom's promotion at work after suffering so long at her previous supervising job and for my family being in good terms and pretty healthy and living pretty comfortably amidst all of these crises. We are able to live with them and move beyond them. I know all of these happen to test us and make us stronger. My family has pulled through above and beyond together. I know that if it weren't for their strength and caring for one another we wouldn't be able to pull through like this. Also, I've noticed that as a family member dies, another baby is born. Last time it was my grandmother's sister who died and my cousin was born later in the year. This time my other cousin is having a baby girl in October, so that is another blessing in disguise.
We certainly can't plan these things, but we can prepare how to react to them. What is the most important is how we handle the situations that are thrown at us. Thus far, I think we've been doing pretty good and we've been really blessed. I said the seatbelt saved my dad's life. My sister said it was the rosary on her rearview mirror. She says she's really glad she left that there. So am I.
At 8:15pm my dad left for work. As usual I said goodbye and he came back a minute later to remind my brother to take out the garbage and left. Ten minutes later our phone rang and it sounded like my dad, but he already hung up. I made no second guess about it until I hear my sister yell "Ate" (pronounced 'ah teh' means older sister) from upstairs. I hoped I was hearing things and that it was the TV, but sure enough here she cam running down the stairs and continued "Ate, Tatay (dad) got into a car accident" and my heart stopped.
It was less than ten minutes when he left and he got into a car accident. I was in shock and my mind began thinking of horrible things. My sister said he was okay, but we needed to pick him up near by. My sister and I left and I told my brother to stay behind since my mom would be coming home soon. We left and didn't know where the accident was. Sheryl said to look for the sirens. Sure enough, as soon as we got out of our little subdivision, there were a ton of red and blue lights.
I turned my hazard lights on and my sister walked up to the police. I immediately saw the Jeep spun around the opposite direction to where my dad was going. I was horrified thinking just how much damage there was and how fast the other car was going. I then walked up to the police and asked where my dad was. I was so relived to see my dad relatively unharmed talking to the medical personnel and police. My dad was the one who dialed 911.
Apparently as my dad was heading straight, the other car was at a stop and pulled forward and I guess kept going even though she was supposed to wait for the traffic to clear before proceeding. My dad tried to avoid the collision by turning right, but he still got hit and the other car flew the opposite direction. After seeing all the lights ambulance and shards of glass everywhere along with the Jeep's bumper on the floor I looked for the other party to see how they were. I saw one of the kids on a stretcher and the other child and mom being pulled out of the car also in stretchers. The two young girls were not wearing a seat belt. Based on the clean cut observation, the other car was at fault and unforunately suffered alot of damage. My dad felt bad for the children especially when he heard them scream and cry as the cars collided. He said the kids, since they were not buckled in, flew out of their seats and slammed into the windshield. I saw the windshield and it was smashed like someone dropped a bowling ball on top of it. My dad said the girls were bleeding. I guess from the shards of glass. I hope the family is okay. Not to make light of the other family's situation, but I'm so thankful my dad wasn't seriously hurt.
What I was scared about was telling my mom. She was about to be home soon and getting a call like that will just freak her out. My sister got hold of her as soon as we got to the hospital and my mom came in with a frightend look on her face. She was so relieved to see my dad okay. He suffered some whiplash, back pain and his arm and wrists are in pain as well. I guess because of the impact. The airbags didn't deflate either, so he hit his head on the rear view mirror. Otherwise, no cuts or anything like that. As for the car, well the body is fine, but the bumper and a portion of the left front part is smashed off completely. Who knows when we'll be able to get that car fixed. Luckily we have four cars. At the moment though, we only have two cars usable, so this will certainly change my week schedule.
To make matters worse, there were other misforunes that happend over this weekend that overshadowed many events. Although two happy occasions happened, a wedding and a 90th birthday, two deaths also took place. Yesterday crcocodile enthusiast turned celebrity Steve Irwin died from a sting ray poison. He was dead on the spot. I couldn't believe it when my sister told me. She looked online to confirm it and it was true. Everyone is in disbelief including myself. He was only 42. A life without the Crocodile Hunter seems a bit more empty :( Also today marked the day of when my cousin and his family would leave California and move to Minessotta. I was even going to help them finish packing this evening, but my dad got into an accident.
My cousin and his wife have postponed their leave suddenly after getting a call from his mom's side of the family. My cousin's mother left him to his father's (my uncle's) care and eventually lost contact with our family. My cousin was raised by our grandmother. We just finished celebrating/commemorating her 40th day of death this past Aug 17th. Now we finally get a call saying that his birth bother died from stroke. He hasn't seen his mother since he was a baby and now she is dead. First his acting mother dies and now his birthmother dies. This isn't a very happy time for my family. His father, who is now remarried also was hospitalized yesterday because of contracting some kind of virus and was really ill. I don't know why this is all happening at the same time or why my cousin's mother never tried to contact her son or our family. They never moved. They never changed phone numbers. We always made her son readily available to her, but she just let him be and continued with her own new family.
Now that all of this has happened, I know I should be sad or even angry, but you know I'm not. Despite all of these "series of unfortunate events" I am still very thankful to God for sparing my dad and watching over him, for my mom's promotion at work after suffering so long at her previous supervising job and for my family being in good terms and pretty healthy and living pretty comfortably amidst all of these crises. We are able to live with them and move beyond them. I know all of these happen to test us and make us stronger. My family has pulled through above and beyond together. I know that if it weren't for their strength and caring for one another we wouldn't be able to pull through like this. Also, I've noticed that as a family member dies, another baby is born. Last time it was my grandmother's sister who died and my cousin was born later in the year. This time my other cousin is having a baby girl in October, so that is another blessing in disguise.
We certainly can't plan these things, but we can prepare how to react to them. What is the most important is how we handle the situations that are thrown at us. Thus far, I think we've been doing pretty good and we've been really blessed. I said the seatbelt saved my dad's life. My sister said it was the rosary on her rearview mirror. She says she's really glad she left that there. So am I.
posted by shine
at
Monday, September 04, 2006
0 Comments
Links to this post
