Most of my family are aware of how I feel about the business I'm currently in. What's truly ironic about it, is that I should have known!! Because my first encounter with a VW Beetle was most certainly an omen...
I was in Grade 2 or 3, and I had this nifty blue bike that I rode to school every day. We still lived on Chaucer Street, and it was standard to cut through Oak Bay High School to get to Willows School. I was a fairly accomplished cyclist (or so I thought), and was on my way home from school one afternoon. I was just about to cross the crosswalk on the road adjacent to the high school - right near the Oak Bay Lodge. This crosswalk happened to be on the crest of a hill. I had come to a stop, and had checked for cars coming both directions as best one could, and started across the walk. But an elderly gentleman came speeding over the hill in a baby-blue coloured VW Beetle and hit me and my bike, throwing me to the side of the road. My front of my bike was crushed, and my arm was broken (luckily I was on the FAR side of my bike and so it took the initial hit). Also luckily, I landed on a grassy patch of someone's lawn. Bicycle helmets weren't around then, and had I landed on cement on my head, I probably wouldn't be writing this!
So there I am, in a pile of twisted bike on the side of the road, and somewhat dazed. I don't even remember feeling any pain in my arm! Shortly, somebody came over to help me - they must have called an ambulance. And a few minutes later, by pure coincidence my cousin Kara (who was a high schooler at the time) came over to say "I got the licence plate number. Oh! It's Channa!!" So she must have somehow got the message to my Mum to meet us at the hospital, etc. I got transported by ambulance the whopping 4 or 5 blocks that it was to the ER at Jubilee Hospital, and got to subsequently enjoy the attention that every elementary school kid gets when they come to school in a cast!
Other illnesses with stories to tell:
Chicken pox in Toyroom (Chaucer)
Eye Surgery 1: boy in traction and "Mummy I can see!"
Earache Sighting of Santa Claus (Chaucer)
Sick Kids in the Pink Room (Chaucer)
Broken Arm #2: A wild pitch
Eye Surgery 2: A new room (Haultain) and special teacher attention
yes Channa the crosswalk accident ! and imagine the police convincing your mother and dad.. that if we were to press charges or if they were to do so, the very very old man would loose his licence and not be able to drive the once a day to visit his aged wife in th e hospital..
ReplyDeleteI'm appalled that you went thru thus... and he was allowed to ignore you and carry on to possibly hit another ""walking ! their bike,, (obediently, as instructed)in a crosswalk !
This is among the list of things I would do differently, if I were to have a second chance at my mothering. years...
additionally,
I saw your list of other accidents and illnesses.. I look forward to the day when you have a few mintes to write about them..