Boom! Smash! Oww! (Whoops!)

It should have been easy-peasy; a walk in the park; a piece of cake – take your pick, any metaphor will do.

Mom had a check up downtown at her doctor’s office this afternoon, and since I was working on some school with the kids, I let Laurent play chauffeur for the trip.  I made sure they left around 12:30 to get there in plenty of time to park etc. for the 1:15 appointment time.

It was only 15 minutes later when my phone rang. It was Laurent calling from Mom’s phone, saying she’d had an accident.  After quickly assuring me that she and Mom were both un-injured, I asked where they were. She tried to read the signs, but her glasses had flown off in the accident and she couldn’t find them in the car.  I didn’t know what to do.  Helplessly, I told her – I have no car, I can’t come get you or anything. My first suggestion was to call her dad, not sure if he could do anything either, but I figured that was a good next step.

Several phone calls later they were on their way home in a tow truck with the un-drivable van.  The accident turned out, unfortunately, to be Laurent’s fault. She accidentally went through a red light, and was hit on the front end passenger side by a car which had the right of way.  However, it also turned out that the other driver had no license or insurance. So that being the case, they will have a tougher time of it with fines and impound fees.

When Paul got home and looked it over, his assessment was that it is probable that our lovely Toyota is a total loss. The frame is bent in to the engine, and a few other issues that will be too costly to repair to be worth it.  And, my girl will be doing some traffic school classes, and there will be a fine to pay.  Hopefully we can put this behind us with a lesson well learned.

I don’t know when we will be able to afford another vehicle again… it will be a while.  The Lord knows, and He always provides what we need.  Thus, for the time being, we are a two-non-air-conditioned-vehicle family.  Blurg!!  Not the way we prefer to spend our summers in Arizona, but we did it for the first 14 years here, we can manage it again.

Most importantly, above all other matters, praise be to God, there were no injuries.  It could have been much, much worse.

Oh, and when I looked inside the car the first thing I saw was her glasses, sitting on the passenger seat.  Helps to be wearing your specs when you’re looking for something.