Daddy

Sunday my dad (who I've told y'all before is 82) was in a serious car accident and Thank God he is alive and well. He was sitting at a stop light waiting for it to change when a young guy in a truck plowed into him and pushed him across the street into a wall and he hit the wall with the passenger side of his car. Then the guy hit him again on the front as he sped away. My father was left dazed and not sure what had happened except that he had just been hit. Thank goodness some passerby's stopped and helped him. He called me to tell me he had been in a really bad accident and I panicked but got ready to go to him.

Rey told me to stay with the children and he would go. He called me as soon as he arrived and told me my father was fine, just a little shook up. It was amazing that he wasn't hurt. He has a pacemaker so anything could have happened.

The police took over an hour to make it to the accident! We could not believe that they did not reply to the call of an elderly man in a hit and run accident immediately. That just blows me away! Anyway, they were able to get the information on the guy, if he was in fact driving his vehicle, because he dropped his license plate when he hit my dad’s car!

My poor dad! His car was totaled and he was left without a car. Rey brought him back to our house.

When they got here Rey called out to me, "Loida, I told your dad he needs to go the hospital and he doesn't listen. Look at how he's walking!"

My father was limping really badly and when I saw him I cried out, "What do you mean? I thought you were okay?!"

They both cracked up laughing. "Oh, y'all are both EVIL!" I cried.

My father is such a joker. He had just been in a serious accident and his car was totaled yet he could still joke about it. Ay a yay!

I made him spend the evening and night with me because I wanted to watch him to make sure there wasn't anything seriously wrong with him. We've known of people who have been in an accident and seem to be okay and then the next day something happens to them. Nothing happened to my dad.

The great irony of all of this is that my 82 year old dad drove himself to Austin and back on Saturday to my cousin's wedding. He did all of this without a hitch and yet the next day in Houston just a few miles from his house and mine he has a terrible car accident.

At first my sister and I wondered if perhaps he had been hit by someone who didn't expect him to be driving so slowly. We thought that maybe it was his fault somehow. Then we find out that it was nothing like that. He was just sitting at a light. That's also very ironic. He drives terrible, yet never has an accident. He sits at a light and some yahoo comes and plows into him! Amazing!

I know my father is getting older and I know that one day he may just go, but when I received that phone call from him on Sunday my blood ran cold. I imagined the worse. I imagined him in a hospital bed, immobile and angry because he'd lost his freedom to come and go as he pleases. I was scared for him and I must admit I was scared for me and my sisters.

Being the child of an elderly parent comes with that chance. I know that when it happens we will take care of him the same way he and my mother took care of us when we were little and helpless. I just hope that day is still far way.