Mother’s Day, don’t take it for granted

Hey everyone, this is Al, Jenny’s son. I’m the computer guy here at the shop, so you may know me for good or for bad, depending on your experience with the site, but I wanted to stop by real quick and share my Mother’s Day thoughts, hope that’s okay.

As you all know, Mother’s Day is coming up, and I wanted to let you know that I am grateful for my Momma Doan. I think I’ve always been grateful for Mom and Dad, though I do sometimes take them for granted without realizing I am. It just happens, I don’t mean to, but it does.

It is in this spirit, the spirit of remembering how precious life and family are, that I’m writing today. We all had an experience this last week that kind of shook me up a bit, and made me realize I need to appreciate the wonderful people in my life more and not take them for granted, and at the very top of that list is Momma Doan.

About a week ago, Mom and Dad left Hamilton to drive down to Kansas City to get some supplies for the new shop, it’s about an hour drive, and we do it several times a week for the last 17 years. It was raining pretty good, but it’s Missouri, nothing was out of the ordinary, seriously, we do this all the time. Well about 20 minutes after they left, I got a call that went something like this – “Son, we’ve been in an accident, we’re on the highway, come quickly, we’re okay, just come as fast as you can”

Mom wrote the following excerpt sent in an email to us kids after this which tells it better than I (she said I could share it with you all) –

“First let me say that we are OK, but we were in a car wreck today. We had borrowed Grandpa’s truck to go to the city to pick up vanities for the new shop. It was raining really hard, the kind of rain that soaks you when you walk from the house to the car…Dad was going slower, about 60, as visibility wasn’t very good. A semi truck blew past us washing us with water and we started to fish tail … Dad was worried that we were going to hit the semi. But we headed for the ditch and he was relieved as he thought we would be able to drive out of that, but we hit the other side and rolled. The ditch was swollen with water about 10 feet wide and 4 feet deep. When the truck stopped, we landed on the top of the truck upside down.

We were hanging upside down and some how Dads cell phone was still in his shirt pocket. He grabbed it and called 911. I asked him if he was ok and he asked me. We were both surprised that we were alright. I wanted out of my seat belt but I couldn’t get it unbuckled so I asked Dad if he could unbuckle me and he reached over and did it. All this time he is talking to 911 and trying to describe where we are. When he unbuckled me I fell straight down on my head and somehow managed to get turned around and sat Indian style on the roof of the car. I zipped up my purse and tucked it up into the floor board above me head.

All the sudden i noticed that Dad’s voice was sounding panicky. He tried the door and it wouldn’t open…He yelled at me not to open my door and for the first time I looked around and noticed that the water was over the window on my side and the cab was filling with water. I looked at Dad he is still talking to 911 and the water was at his forehead. The Door wouldn’t open so he started to roll down his window. He got it about half way down and unbuckled himself held his breath and pulled himself out the window. He reached his arm back in and rolled the window down the rest of the way and pulled me out. We were glad to be out of the cab and able to breath.

Then Dad yelled Run Jenny and the water started to roll the truck. Dad was trying to hold the truck to keep it from rolling on me and I was trying to stand up in 4 feet of rushing water and suddenly I just let go and the water carried me down the ditch. I knew I was in trouble as I couldn’t stop and started grabbing at the grass along the sides of the ditch. A car stopped and I yelled “help me” They came down into the dtich and pulled me out of the water. I looked back at the truck and the water had rolled it on it’s side and Dad was up on the bank. He came running to me and we just held each other. We are still amazed that other than a sore neck and back we are are OK. By this time we climbed up out of the ditch and a van stopped and I sat in his car. Our clothes were soaked and Dad and I were shaking badly. I was also covered with debris from the water in the ditch. Shortly after that the ambulance, firemen and highway patrol came. Dad’s phone that we just got yesterday was toast so we called Alan on a phone that belonged to the man in the van…he didn’t answer the first time but the second time he picked up and came right away to get us.

We feel very blessed to be alive…there are so many things that could have happened and it could have gotten really bad really fast. If the window hadn’t opened Dad could have drowned, if the water hadn’t carried me away, the truck could have rolled on top of me. But we were watched over and protected.

We just want all of you to know that we love you and you just never know from one day to the next how things can change. So hug each other and and your children.

We love you! Mom and Dad”

Pretty crazy stuff. Right after I got the call and was heading down there, my mind was racing with all the things that I hadn’t done yet in my life that I wanted them to see and know about, everything from marriage to kids, to talents and hobbies that I’ve developed but not shared.  So much of who we are revolves around our family and most of that starts and ends with Mom and Dad, and out of the blue I just got a call that both of them were very close to not being here like I was used to.

A lot of people get this wake up call with much more serious circumstances, things like cancer, other life threatening diseases, and death are all wake up calls. I’m extremely grateful our wake up call was in the end, nothing more than a totalled pickup truck and some wet clothes, but it was enough to wake me up, one more broken window or the car sliding a different direction and this could have been an absolute tragedy.

So on this Mother’s Day, I hope you’ll look around and give one more hug to people that matter to you, be kind, let them know you love them, because honestly, you just never know what will happen, so make the most of it while we can.

Mom and Dad, love you both!

Al

 

Al, Mom, Dad, Cousin Spenser two weeks ago