The Almost Worst Day of My Life

Saturday evening, we had an event occur at our home that I'm sure will not soon be forgotten.  It started out as a completely normal Saturday night.  We debated between pizza and a movie, going out for dinner, or skipping the showers and sitting around a backyard campfire.  With pizza being the winning decision, Hubby decided to pull my van into the garage for the night.  I was on the porch, watering flowers, and the kids were here & there.

All of a sudden, I heard a tremendous crash and Hubby began yelling things like, "God, no!"  He's not a yeller so I flipped out.  I remember dropping the watering can and screaming, "What happened?"  Yet, I was frozen with fear.  I remember being unable to approach the dreadful sound, for fear that my 3-year old baby would be lying in the midst of it.

I'll save you from vomiting right now- she's fine.  But, in that moment, I honestly thought he ran her over with the van.  I finally ran off the porch and turned the corner to see a disarray of everything in our garage.  The shelf had fallen over, there was stuff everywhere, and the shiny, black door of our van was opened completely the wrong way.  Meaning, the painted side of the door was touching the front tire/bumper area of the car.

Hubby was in a state of shock and couldn't communicate to me what just occurred.  I was still screaming, "What happened?"  Baby Girl was standing off to the side, in the grass, bawling hysterically.  She had never seen her parents screaming wildly before (unless it was aimed at her for  her misbehavior).  I picked her up to console her, still trying to calm myself down and figure out what happened.

The real story, which I didn't even get out of Hubby until a couple hours later, is as follows.  Before he started the car, he told Baby Girl to back up and get out of the way so he could pull the car in.  He saw her walk away and deemed the situation safe.  Halfway into the garage, he felt a thump thump, which he immediately thought was her tiny, little body.  He threw open the driver's door and shoved the gearshift into park.  He jumped out of the van to see what he hit when the van started going in reverse.  In his panic, he didn't get the gearshift all the way up to park.  It only made it to reverse.  When that happened, he was thrown up against the side of the garage while the door knocked over the shelf.  Pinned between the car and the garage, he was helpless.  The van kept rolling backward and the momentum was enough to force the door all the way forward.  At this point, he still didn't know if she was safe.  That's when he started yelling. 

He somehow managed to stop the vehicle and find his daughter.  It turns out, the object he hit was Son #2's golf bag, which happens to be about the same size as Baby Girl.  His fear turned into rage and he lost his temper quite a bit.  This contributed to Baby's Girl's hysteria.  I worked quickly to calm them both down and tried to figure this puzzle out.  Hubby wasn't even sure if he was injured yet but explained that he was pinned between the car and the garage.

The van door was crumpled like a piece of paper.  It amazes me that a big, strong machine like a vehicle can just crumple the way it did.  I couldn't even bring myself to take a photo of it, I was so sick about the entire situation.

Typically, I am the cause of fender benders in this family.  He doesn't know what it feels like to drive home, sobbing, to tell the story of how you wrecked the car.  He was so angry at himself and angry at Son #2 for leaving his golf clubs in the way.  He kept apologizing to me over and over with the sound of tears in his voice.

The optimist in me kept explaining that there was no need to apologize; that's why it's called an accident.  This accident could have had a much worse ending.  With everyone involved coming out unharmed, I considered it a happy ending.  Sure, it's going to cost a fortune at the body shop.  We couldn't even get the door closed and had to rig the car so the interior lights would go off.  The cost doesn't bother me.  Being without a vehicle for a week or so doesn't bother me.  Cleaning up the mess in the garage didn't bother me.  God had his hand of protection over my family that day, so there's not a single thing I could even ask for.

Feeling very blessed today...