A Lady's Car Accident in Days of My Destiny

M was invited to her friend's 6th birthday party on Saturday afternoon. The whole morning was a bit of a stuff-around with L's parents here. They always fluff about and make things way more complicated than they should. Anyway so tangent here but I just realised I need to get this off my chest - they wanted to go out for a coffee. It's what they always want to do - no, what SHE always wants to do. What she doesn't realise is that, even though it's only a 15 minute drive to the nearest coffee shop, we actually travel a LOT through the week. L does 500kms a week just to get to work and back. I do 150kms a week just to get to the bus-stop and back (or school on preschool days), and then there are AT LEAST two other trips I do during every week which add another 150kms. So come the weekend, the LAST thing we want to do is hop back in our cars. But whatever, we do these things because it's THEM.

The thing that annoyed me further about this though is that THEY THEMSELVES had travelled all day the day before just to get to us and were going to have to drive all day the NEXT day just to get home! But Diedre loves looking at Op Shops and so her grand idea was for us all to go for a coffee and "on the way there" she would stop at the Op Shop 100m down the road for a little look-see. We waited at the coffee shop for about half an hour. Then it closed. They still weren't there. We were getting more and more pissed off by the minute, and I especially was getting pissed off at US for even putting up with this crap time and time and time again instead of ASSERTING OURSELVES. Mind you, I try, but at the end of the day, she is HIS mother and so HE should be the one to fully state what our position is and have final say. And so because of this, we always end up acquesing and then sitting there all frustrated and bitching about them. (which is an issue)

Finally when they got there and found out the coffee shop had closed, it was suggested that we go to a takeaway shop. Which pissed me off even more, because now we were dressed up with nowhere to go and a TAKEAWAY SHOP just wasn't going to do it for me, I'm sorry. They made their way there and the girls needed the toilet at that moment, so while they were in the toilet, L and I were fleshing all of our frustrations out even more and he ended up ringing his parents and saying, Let's eat lunch at the pub (which is the dressiest place in this town after the RSL and we weren't going to the RSL because they do Chinese on the weekends there and she doesn't eat Chinese).

So we had lunch, not without its own bumps and hurdles because M acted up and made all this unnecessary noise all throughout. She was doing it just because she was showing off. She used to act up a lot in restaurants and she's grown up a lot, but nooooooooooo, the minute grandma and grandad are about she has to turn into this annoying person. Anyway.

After lunch, L took his dad to a cotton farm. Last year I had a tour of my friend's cotton farm but L missed out due to his shift work, so this year, my friend was really on top of it, making sure L didn't miss out again. She kept reminding me about when the picking would start and everything, which was really cool, and it ended up being that picking started that day, so L took his dad and I took his mum to the birthday party with us. I didn't really feel like taking her and I had kind of really hoped that she'd go along to this cotton farm because her and I just have next to no relationship anymore. I don't know when the hell that happened and honestly I don't care. None of us have much at all to say to each other. So she was in my car with me while we drove the 30kms or so to the birthday party.

I passed a maroon car on the side of the road. I always pass empty cars on the side of the highway, so I never really stop and stare, but as I passed this one, I noticed the driver's door was open and a lady was actually standing just outside her car, waiving her arms about desperately, with a weeping look on her face, clearly calling out for help. I pulled over as quickly as I could and got out of the car immediately, running towards this car which I now realised the front of it was actually smashed up against a tree. The lady had sat back in her car and was weeping and weeping. It broke my heart to hear it and when I got to her I asked if she was okay and what happened and I rubbed her back gently, promising her that she would be alright. Her front windscreen was all smashed up and the bonnet of the car was wrapped around a tree. She had blood on her pants near her knees and a terrible bruise across her chest from the seatbelt pulling her back upon impact.

She was weeping and weeping and blurting everything out at once. She was saying how she was simply driving at the speed limit which was 80 and that once she turned the corner there was loose gravel which made the steering wheel go crazy and she tried to control the car but she couldn't and she always drives safely and she's never had an accident and she's not used to these roads and that when she saw that tree coming towards her she thought, "and that was the last I saw of my children."

I'd never met her before but she was on her way back home after dropping her own child at the same party we were going to. Her mother was at home looking after her other two children. She was upset also because there wasn't great reception there. Another lady, Jacqui, had been driving behind me and so she pulled up too and when she heard about the reception, she said to me that she'd drive back towards town until she had good reception and could call the ambulance.

While all this was going on, I don't know WHY but L's mum got the girls out of the car. They were standing at my car, about 30m away on the opposite side of the road and M was calling out to me, "Mum!!! Muuuuum!!! MUUUM!" When I finally turned she said, "Can we come over?" I didn't answer straight away because I was trying to listen to and comfort this poor woman who clearly needed someone there. I couldn't hear M properly and I thought it was a ridiculous question so I didn't really answer at all, I just waved my hand at her and turned back to the woman. The woman called her mother and told her she'd had an accident and was really scared. Her mother was an absolute cow and was telling her to stop crying because she couldn't understand her properly. When the daughter repeated what she'd said, the mother simply asked how Shelby was. The lady then said that Shelby wasn't in the car with her, she was at the party and that she herself was in the car alone. I was shocked that the mother didn't ask if her own daughter was okay, but she was on the other end, simply saying Fuck. She was probably shocked herself.

The lady had said her knees really hurt and so she pulled up her pants to reveal blood and bone swishing around underneath torn flesh. The gashes were on both knees and were really deep. When she saw this, she started weeping really loudly. Next thing I know, I could hear M saying my name and she wasn't shouting this time, she sounded really close. I turned around, and there, right behind me, was M, Little L and my mother-in-law, standing there, dumb founded and shocked. M started to cry once she heard the lady weeping and said fearfully, "Mum when are we going to the party??" while crying. I was just so frustrated at my mother-in-law, for her stupidity and for taking my children there when OBVIOUSLY anybody would know to keep children away from the scene!!!! So I didn't answer her, instead I said, "That's why I didn't say yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" [to coming over] I heard my mother-in-law quietly say Sorry as she walked back to the car with my daughters. I think she tried to explain herself too but I just turned straight back to the woman with the open knees and kept looking after her.

She called her boyfriend who sent his mate who also came with another friend and 2 teenage girls. Everyone was slightly panicking. In the meantime, Adele drove past, as she was making her own way to the party with her younger child. She pulled over and came over to help me reassure everybody. She was really good at distracting Tammy (we now knew her name) by talking about her tattoo and where she was from and so on. I walked over to the car with the two teenage girls, as one of them hung out of the window and started bawling her eyes out asking, "Who is it??? Oh God are they okay, who the fuck is it??!???!??!" So I went over and rubbed her back and reassured her that Tammy would be okay. I told her that Tammy had terrible cuts on her knees but that I promised she would be okay.

Finally the ambulance came and my job was done. I had told Tammy I was happy to return her child to her after the party, seeing as her own car was written off, so while the ambulance officers got her out of her car and into their vehicle, I spoke to her friends and got some contact numbers and addresses.

I walked back to my car, hopped in, and saw that my mother-in-law had tears in her eyes. She apologised again and I just didn't really know what to say. I was kind of thinking with a heavy sigh, "Must you make everything about you...." and drove away.

We went to the party and I acted normal and laughed and talked. I ate lollies and met the daughter. I dropped her off without telling her anything that had happened (as my friends advised me not to). This girl was really nice. I had to drop her off to her mum's friend's place whose face I am familiar with and had a bit of small talk and I let her know that I hadn't said anything.

I drove away.

On the way home, my MIL kept staring at me, I think she was trying to search my face to see if I was okay. She kept rubbing my back and I just wanted her off me. I didn't want her sympathy, I just wanted her to leave me alone. What happened had happened and that was that.

Once we got home, she bathed the girls for me and we all had dinner and were pleasant. I got on with it. Finally I had a chance to be alone in my room and I just burst into quiet tears as I processed the whole event.

Part of me was grieving. I felt really sorrowful for that poor woman. I was thinking about how close to death she had come and that had she died, her final thoughts really were on her children. As a mother of course I could really put myself in that situation.

I was also equally ANGRY.

WHY DID SHE PUT MY CHILDREN IN THAT SITUATION, WHY DID SHE TAKE THEM THERE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! WHY IS SHE SO STUPID?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I was hurting and frustrated that not any situation, whether simple or complex, is interpreted by her in a NORMAL way. I was pissed off that she didn't have the simply fucking common sense to leave my children away from the scene!!! Who would do that?????

I had to tell L, even though he is the son, he saw me crying and I had to tell him. I felt bad because I was so angry at how stupid she is, and really that's how I felt, and couldn't help it.

I didn't know how much my daughters had seen, and why should they see ANY of it?!?? They're 3 and 6 for crying out loud!!!!!!!!!

So that was a horrible part of my weekend..................................................