Wednesday, April 18, 2007
To a certain West Virginia business owner:
Fifteen years ago I came to your door, drenched to the bone from the rain and asking for help. I had been driving down the road, several hundred yards away from your isolated business, and my car had hydroplaned on a curve. It spun around several times before slamming head-on into a rock embankment. I was not wearing my seatbelt because I had just bought lunch and was only traveling a mile to a park to stop and eat it. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Upon impact I was thrown forward into the steering wheel and the rear-view mirror. I was pretty sure I was not too badly injured, but my head hurt. I kept rubbing it. I did in fact break the rear-view mirror with my head, leaving behind dangling strands of hair in the cracked glass. My car had bounced backward from the rock embankment, and ended up blocking both lanes of traffic.

I stumbled out of my car, into the pouring rain and went looking for help. Your business was the only building in sight. I came through your door and asked if you could call the police to report the accident. I told you the car was blocking traffic both ways. Your phone rang. You answered it. You proceeded to hold a conversation for the next ten minutes with me standing there, dripping on your floor. I stood there long enough that a wrecker truck driver, who was stuck in traffic, had set out to find the owner of the wrecked vehicle so he could offer to tow it out of the way. After he found me you finally got off the phone. When you did call the police they said since were no injuries and no property damage I could go on my merry way. I thanked you and left with the wrecker driver.

That driver was the hero that day. He took me back to his trailer and let me wait, with his wife and kids, while I made phone calls to my insurance company and to someone who could come rescue me. The other heroes of the day were Noni and Pa Paw, who drove almost an hour and a half to pick me up and take me home.

My insurance company was not so dismissive of the accident. My car was totaled and they sent me for head x-rays after they saw the rear-view mirror.

The accident taught me that it's important to buckle up no matter how short the distance. It showed me the kindness of a wrecker driver, who rescued me from the situation and took me to his family, for comfort, shelter and a phone. It reinforced the fact that I can ALWAYS call on my family in times of need and they will be there for me. But Ms. West Virginia business owner, I still think of you occasionally, too, and the unbelievably selfish and cruel way you behaved that day.
Written at 1:17 PM by Highlandgal.
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