Civic Duty (Or, What Happened to My Mom, According to a Nice Man Named Brian)

This is my mother, whom you have met in several stories of mine this past week. Yesterday, she joined my daughters and me at Team Chicken. Here is she is, just after sweeping out the coop. Happy.

As my younger daughter said when we went out for a snack after hanging out with the chickens for a very long while, "This is one of the best days of my life." As my mother said, "I love to join all of you on your adventures."

Right now, my mother is in the hospital, with several broken bones, on her way into surgery. Her car was hit by someone who ran a red light. A very kind man named Brian called me and told me how he witnessed the accident. How my mother's car spun around several times and is now completely totaled. How the man in the other car admitted to the police officer that he ran the light.

And so, as I wait, here with sleeping children, for my husband to call again from the hospital, I am braced for whatever I need to do to help my mother. But first, I wanted to take this moment to say thank you to this Brian, this stranger, who told me he was simply doing his civic duty.

Perhaps more of us can remember to do our civic duty when we are driving. When we are in a hurry. When we don't want to get stuck for that red light. Perhaps we can remember that the person in that other car is a grandmother. Or a dad. Or a sister. Or a friend. Perhaps we can remember that life is precious, and that it can be gone in a blink.

Perhaps we can just slow down.