Three Important Lessons to Learn

Okay, so I had the most horrific day on Tuesday. Well, the day started off okay; Mom came in, I helped her run some errands, we went to the bookstore and then I came home and she went home.

I got to work at about 1:40 and as I'm talking to my co-worker, Doris, my cell phone rings and I miss it so I let the voice mail get it. An hour later, I finally have a chance to get my message and this is what I get from my Mom's cell phone:

'Hi Allison, you don't know me, but I'm with your mom, she's been in a car accident and she's in the hospital.'

That's it. That's all. I don't know anything else. I go tearing out of the office where Doris is with her grandkids in the pool and I am freaking out and crying and I'm telling her that I have to go, my mom's been in an accident. A woman there asked if she could take me to the hospital and I admit that I don't even know which hospital she's in. So, I make a panicked call to her cell phone and Mom actually answers.

I don't get much out of the conversation except that she's pretty much okay and she's at the hospital in Pincher Creek. I tell her that I'll be right there and she warns me not to drive until I calm down. I hang up and call Dave's work. They tell me he'll have a break in about ten minutes. I tell them to stress that it's an emergency.

Fifteen minutes go by and I call again. This time, I get someone with a properly functioning brain and they get Dave to the phone right away. He leaves work immediately and we're on our way to the hospital. I find out that Dave was told I called the first time but there was no stress in the emergency part of it.

After the original 1 hour drive plus 3 construction zones later, we finally make it to the hospital and Mom is in trauma. We find out that some crazy *expletive* ran a stop sign, driving over the posted speed limit and ran into my mother in the intersection. Well, as the cars were, my Mom ended up hitting her but the impact of it spun Mom's car around and snapped the end off her radial bone. So she was still in the hospital awaiting news of an impending surgery to pin the bone.

The doctors finally came in and put a partial cast on, telling us that she'll get a call from the surgeon to tell her if she needs the surgery or just a cast. They were pretty confident that she only needed a cast.

So, after the whole thing, I was probably worse for wear because of the stupid message on my voice mail that lead me to believe for an entire five minutes that my mom was fatally injured. So, the two important lessons I learned was:

1. The people we love the most really won't be here forever so enjoy every possible moment.

2. Some phone messages are non-descript and should be looked into before we practically blow up a lung from hyper-ventilation

3. Please, please drive carefully and watch the stop signs.