Many years ago when our children were still at home, we were on our way to our nephew's baptism. Suddenly, a car just ahead of us clipped the back fender of a small car it was passing. We gasped as the rear axle of that car came loose and flipped over our car while the rest of the car did front to back somersaults across five lanes of freeway traffic. Amazingly, no other cars were hit, and none of us collided into each other.
As the car was completing its last flip, a small bundle fell out of the car window, then the car landed on its side on the bundle. All I could think was, "Oh no!, Oh no!" I was so afraid that the car had landed on a baby.
Several of us who had see the accident pulled off to the side of the road where the car had finally stopped. Though I'm sure that everyone there was aware that this car could possibly catch on fire or explode, no one spoke of it. We all knew we were needed, and we simply did what we could to help. There wasn't any dramatics or panic. Everyone just calmly did what they could.
Garrett directed traffic around the crash. Another called for emergency help. Some of the men got the woman out of the driver's seat. After she was gently set down on the road, men looked for others in the back seat and found two small children. We all held our breath as we asked the woman how many children she had and sighed with relief when we were told that there were only the two children- a little boy and girl. It was so good to know that there wasn't a baby crushed under the car.
When the children were handed out of the car, I knew that I needed to help to keep both the mother and her children from going into shock. So when they handed the little boy out, I took him then handed him to our teenage daughter when the little girl was handed out. The mother lay on the roadway confused and worried about her children. My daughter and I held her children where she could see them. I kept reassuring the mother that her children were out of the car and, thanks to their safety seats, weren't even bruised. We kept showing her that her children were by her and safe. We talked to the children and told them that their Mommy just had a hurt leg and was going to be fine. We explained what had happened and that an ambulance would be coming that would take them all to the hospital so their mommy could be made all better.
We held the children close until the ambulance came. The EMT's wanted to have the children strapped into seat belts in the back of the ambulance with their mother. I told him that I thought my daughter and I should continue to hold the children and that we would ride in the back of the ambulance. He said it was against the rules, then paused and looked at us. Quietly, he
said that he had never before seen children who were in an accident who were not in shock.
So after they had put the mother onto a stretcher and lifted her into the back of the ambulance, this EMT helped my daughter and I into the back with the mother. We never set the children down for even a moment and just kept assuring the mother and the children that they all were all right.
At the hospital we still held the little boy and girl as the mother was taken in for emergency care. My daughter even had the children laughing so much that we were told to keep them more quiet. Soon the woman's family arrived, and we said goodbye. We never knew their names, but we knew that we had been guided and had had the privilege to be in the right place, at the right moment to help someone.
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