Tis the Shortness of Life's Breath

This past Saturday night I was driving home from an enjoyable romp around Christmas Candylane with my mom and sister. I had just come off the highway and onto the secondary road near my street when the horrible events began to happen. There was a man that was trying to cross the three lanes and evidently didn't not look. Without describing too many gruesome details, the minivan in front of me tried to miss the man but was unsuccessful. The collision sent the man off the front of the minivan into the middle lane of traffic. My mind seemed to slow down into slow motion as these events were unfolding. As I brought my car to a stop, I saw this man just laying motionless in the middle lane as another car came along in the middle lane and hit and dragged the man under the front of the car for a few feet.

At this point I was in shock at what I just saw and didn't really know how to deal with it. I have never seen a person die in person. That last breath pulled from them in a final stroke of life's brush. And here was this man lying trapped under a car and not moving. In the midst of this shock, my mom was yelling at me to call 911. She yelled it a couple times at me before I was brought back to reality and got on the phone. She had basically already jumped out of the car to go over to see if there was anything that she could do. Some people were there and one of them, who seemed to be a nurse, was bent down on the ground checking the man out. Once I got on the phone I had been pulled out of my shock and was going about the business of giving the 911 operator as much information as I knew, while still trying to process what I had just seen.

After I got done with the phone and got out and was standing there watching the police and paramedics work. I was shivering and shaking and it had nothing to do with the chill in the air. It was strange and for the next couple of days when I talked about it, I would shake. In fact now as I write this, although I am not shaking a lot, there is still some.

We found out the the man had a pulse and was in a small part responding. I have found out through the news that the man is still alive and should make it although he is still in critical condition. This was fantastic news for me and those that were there. I would never like to see someone lose their life. Sometime though, I may have to witness that event.

I have tried to process this over the past couple of days. I figured that writing about this would help me. As time has past, my response has calmed down from the jittering that was happening for a while. I don't think I will ever fully forget this. I can't even imagine what it would have been like if that had been a family member or friend and the person had died.

To see in person, such a shocking moment is almost surreal. I hope that at some point I can react with the decisiveness and quickness of my mom. I would have gotten there in a few seconds, but what she did was incredible. It's people like that that can make the difference.

While we humans are incredibly durable, we are also fragile and life can be taken from us so quickly. There is something about the word breath to this. It is a simple thing, yet means so much more. It's almost as if as we breath our souls breath also. And as our breath leaves us for the last time, our souls follow suit. I am not sure what to do with this, but I can at least be thankful for every day of life that I am given by God. And my friends and family that have been given this same great gift. And pray for those around the world that are suffering. Whether from injuries and an accident like this. Whether people who are threatened by other humans. Or by humans threatened by disease and poor health.