5 seconds

On Wednesday night Tod called. He was originally planning to come home on Friday afternoon, but told me he was going to come home Thursday instead. A bunch of friends were having a party in Coppell on Thursday night and he only had one class on Friday. He cleared the absence with his professor and wanted to let me know he was coming home a day early. I told him not to tell Kim, these little surprises mean the world to her.

So, at about 2:45 Thur. afternoon I got a text, “I’m on the road.” I smiled as I thought of Kim’s reaction to seeing him and said a little prayer for a safe trip. Tod headed westbound down I-20 and was making pretty good time. He was driving down the 2-lane freeway in east Texas, about an hour or so from Dallas, in the middle of a line of cars in the left lane that was passing an 18-wheeler on the right. Tunes jamming, cruising along at 75 MPH, looking forward to an evening with friends and a chance to relax for a couple weeks at home.

As the cars in the left lane passed the truck they moved back over, but the car directly in front of Tod moved over pretty quickly. Tod looked ahead and saw a car that looked stopped in his lane. He looked again and noticed that the car was actually coming toward him. He noticed police cars with lights flashing speeding down the eastbound lanes. There was an 18-wheeler beside him, cars behind him and a high speed chase bearing down on him. He cut the cruise control and slowed as much as he could, which was to about 60. The car was coming right at him. His mind raced, a flash, “I’m going to die”, another, “There’s nothing I can do”, thoughts of God and family, of the worst Christmas ever. All of this transpiring in about 5 seconds. Tod resigned himself to the inevitable and prayed. Seconds before a head-on collision, the car moved over onto the shoulder and whizzed by about 6 inches away from the little black Lancer. Tragedy averted. He was shaken up and wanted to talk to someone, but wouldn’t call home because that would ruin the surprise for mom (what a guy), so he called his Aunt Karen. He calmed down, missed his exit and spent an extra 20 minutes on the road, but he made it home in one piece. By the grace of God, he made it to our home instead of His home that day.

We hugged him after he told us, told him we loved him. (In fact tonight at Mass I noticed Kim’s hand reach for Tod’s hand as she whispered, “Thank God you are here.” Tod’s response was, “When would you have had my funeral, after Christmas?”) I hugged all my boys that day and told them each I love them. I sometimes forget how fragile life is and how difficult it is to live deliberately. I’m not waiting for the new year, I’m making my resolution now. Live deliberately.