A Close Call

My Aunt Mary and I used to drive cars to car auctions for my dad. One snowy, icy morning we took off for Columbus when nobody in the world had any business being on the highway. I was creeping along at a snail's pace because of the road conditions and she was in the passenger seat. On a particularly curvy patch of road about a 2 miles from my house all of a sudden a woman in an oncoming vehicle swerved into my lane.

I remember seeing the fear in her eyes as I am sure that she could see the same fear in mine. She was coming straight at me and my only options were to hit her headon or to swerve over the side of the mountain into the freezing river about 200 feet below. I opted to drive straight on and I just shut my eyes waiting for the impending crash. Of course this all seemed to take forever but it was over in seconds.

I remember thinking "where's the crash?" I openned my eyes and there was nothing but ice-covered, curvy road ahead of me. Somehow in the last second her car must have swerved back into her lane. Of course both Mary and I were almost reduced to tears. It was the closest thing to a head on collision that I have ever had. We were so close to that car that I still don't understand to this day how we managed to miss each other (and my aunt feels the same way).

I credit my mom for saving my life that day. For my second driving lesson she took me to a back road and we practiced all kinds of scenarios that could happen on the highway. While I was driving that day soft-hearted me swerved to miss a butterfly fluttering across the road and we almost went into a ditch. She told me " NEVER SWERVE TO MISS ANYTHING!" She said if you swerve off the road you are definitely going to hit something or worse yet go over the side of a mountain (We live in West Virginia you know). And she was so right. If I had swerved to miss that woman we would have ended up in the freezing river that day and more than likely been killed. If we would have hit each other; we were going so slow that even if we would have collided the injuries would have more than likely would have been minor and the biggest damage is that we would have banged up a couple of vehicles. NO BIG DEAL.

THANKS MOM!