MARCH-2004 THE OLD HONDA.

I sent out an e-mail when we were in our car accident. Some replied telling me that they were so glad that we were all ok. This was God at work. Ashley was practicing her driving for drivers-ed. She had her permit and I had just picked her up from school to go driving. We had been driving for maybe five minutes. We stopped at an intersection and waited for oncoming traffic so we could turn left. None of us saw it coming, and I think that's a good thing. Knowing we were going to be hit in seconds and could do nothing about it would have made us so tense. The man driving the van didn't see that we had stopped. He was going 55 which is the speed limit, but being hit by a vehicle going 55 when you're at a stop is painful. He shoved us through the intersection but our car stayed in the same lane. If we had crossed lanes we would have been hit head on by oncoming traffic. The only way I can explain the hit, is the feeling you get when you fall on your back and get the wind knocked out of you. Ashley and I couldn't breath well and we had no idea what had just happened. After a few seconds we realized we had been hit. Christine was in the back seat and she was frantic. She just kept asking over and over "what's happening?" Right as I was turning around to check on her, the back windshield fell on her in hundreds on tiny pieces. Of course it was better than the old glass that broke into big sharp pieces. So Chirstine was covered in glass. The back of the two front seats went straight back and locked in a full reclining position, in other words, they broke. We all had back and neck pain. Within seconds Ashley got out of the car. She left the car running and it was still moving. You just can't think straight when things like that happen. I pulled the car over and got Christine out. I had to get the glass out of her clothing. The first thing Ashley said was, " mom, now how am I going to practice driving for my drivers test? I told her that that was the least of my worries. Everyone was ok, and that was all that mattered. Cars can be replaced. So here is the God at work part. Earlier that day I had taken Christine's booster seat out to wash it. The cover was still wet and we had to go get Ashley. I had her sit in the middle with just the lap belt because when she's in her booster seat she sits on the right or left where the shoulder belt is, and it didn't quite fit her unless she was in her booster seat. I really was trying to make this short. Anyway, had she been sitting in her booster seat on the drivers or passenger side her legs would have been crushed by the front seats. This was the only time she had ever been in the car without being in her seat. She was seven years old so I wasn't terribly worried about it. A couple of days after they had towed the car away we went down to get the things that were trapped in the trunk. Ashley took some of the broken tail light and some of the chipped off paint. She wanted to take the Honda emblem, but it was no longer in one piece. I asked her why she would want any of it. She said that she would miss the car and she wanted some keepsakes from it. Paint chips? She was hesitant to drive after the accident, but gradually she started feeling comfortable with it again. That was the first car accident that any of us had been in. I've been in several fender benders from others hitting me and sideswiped a couple of times, (once by a Suburban) it was not a pretty site. There has been one hit and run and I never did find out who did it. It wasn't long after the hit and run that we were in our accident, so I'm glad I didn't get it fixed. I have also had my car stolen before. It was an older Honda than this one. I didn't have any theft insurance so I was without a car. Stolen from a motel parking lot where you could leave your car for a certain amount of time while you were away on vacation. The lot was full of cars. I made it a point to park it under a light and still it was stolen. When we were looking for it in the lot, I saw right away that another car was in it's spot. I was hoping that the motel clerk had moved it, but I had a bad feeling about it. Clerk said nope, didn't move it. I asked him if he would look at the recording from his camera and let me know if he saw anything. The lot had 24 hour surveillance. Turns out the spot I parked in was out of range of the cameras. Of course it was reported to the police. About three months later after I had just gotten a new car the phone rang late one night. It was the Olympia police department and they said that they had my car. It had been parked in front of a rental house for the last three months and the neighbors got suspicious when the renters moved out and left the car. So they called the police to come and get it. It was towed home, and what a mess. I was just happy to have it back, but the condition it was in was pretty bad. I couldn't believe it had been found. The officer told me that he had removed handfuls of needles from the inside the trunk. He told me to be careful and to check every inch of the car before anyone got in it. People had been living in the car. I didn't find any needles, just some clothing and junk. They tore up the interior and took the cd player and wheels and put some junk wheels and tires on it. Parts were also missing from the motor. I'm guessing they sold the parts from the car to support their drug habbit. Well, that was a book. Anyway, I'm so thankful that we haven't been in any major accidents. I have friends that have been in some really ugly accidents and I can't imagine going through that.