“Monday’s” Daily Prompt: CLOSE CALL & Thanksgiving!

C

LOSE CALL –
Tell about a bullet you’re glad you dodged — 
when something awful almost happened, but didn’t . . . 

I have only been in two minor car accidents, once re-ending someone on a slippery road and another time getting side-swiped with a 10 passenger van full of kids . . .  that is, until two days ago.  OH MY!

It was one of our first snowfalls, and the roads seemed slightly icey, but nothing abnormal for our Michigan wintery roads.  I was driving to a friend’s house, and was specifically so careful on a hill my husband said to be careful on.  I got through that, through a residential area, and then to a curvey road.  Everything was fine, until I saw the deer on a bank to the right of me.  I lightly touched the brake, and started to swerve.  Trying not to swerve one way, I must have over compensated and went driving right up the bank on the right, along the top and then . . . .flying off of it, airborn, about 10 feet, landing only the tires on the left side, and for sure, I thought I was going to flip the car over.  “OH GOD, OH GOD, HELP ME!” and I landed, the right way, with a very loud, CLUNK.

I just sat there frozen.  What just happened?  Am I hurt?  I could not feel any pains. I found my phone and slowly got out.  That hurt – my back.  As I stood, still in shock, I noticed the tire on the front left was bent out in an unusual way.   I looked under the car.  There appeared to be things from under the car, on the ground – that did not look right.

An elderly man came outside and asked if he could help me.  I landed in his driveway, going perpendicular.  I told him what happened.  He could see by the tracks in the snow, where I had “flown” and then landed, first with only one set of tire tracks showing.  He shook his head at me and said, “You MUST have had another Passenger with you.  How you made it with out flipping over is beyond me.”  There’s no doubt God answered my plea for help.  Maybe one of my guardian angels pushed the car so it would go down the right way?  How did I not get hurt worse?

I just told the story to a friend in the store today . . .and I still get the chills telling it.   The underside of the car did get quite damaged . . . tie rod broke, ball joint broke, etc. . . but besides some back/neck aches, I am not broken!  A police officer came out to the accident for insurance purposes, and saw the deer tracks, saw the 10 feet of no tire marks and then just the one side of tire tracks, and where I landed.  He was pretty amazed too.  And the road section I was on was sheer ice.  Later I heard of numerous accidents in our area.

The bummer with it all is that our insurance did not cover it, because, we only had comprehensive insurance on the car, and since I did not hit the deer, there was no coverage.  We were rather bummed . . . and I could continue with that part of the story, BUT, seriously, as I am finishing writing this, my husband just walked in the house.  Our oldest son is a car mechanic and he and my husband worked on the car about five hours last night and another three hours tonight, and my husband JUST DROVE THE CAR HOME!  A very BIG shout-out to my son, for being so willing to help, even when he had just closed on his first house today, and should be moving into it, and instead, helped us out so we have our SAFE vehicle back.  Just really proud of him and thankful to his wife too . . . for her graciousness with him gone.

And the funny thing, is Monday’s Daily Prompt was CLOSE CALL!  Good reminder to write it down – so here it is!