Thursday, July 31, 2008

And then I hit her

So I haven't found to post lately - I've had a few doozies in my head, one of which I will still have to post because 10 days later an article in the Citizen is really really REALLY irking me.

But this morning I did something I have never done before. I rear-ended someone.

It was at a nasty intersection, and some WALNUT (Stuart overheard me saying something far less - um - polite when I got cut off once and thought I said Walnut so we're gonna stick with that one) ran a yellow that was so far gone it had to be red. So the woman in the minivan ahead of me slammed on her brakes and BOOM - I hit her.

And you know what? She was SO NICE about it. SO SO SO NICE. There was nothing more than a tiny scratch on her bumper and she was like "Whatever, no biggie." Then I worried because of course as I was getting out of the car I noticed little people heads in the back (way back, like last row back) and I thought "Oh CRAP, I've hit a car with kids in it. Those poor kids!"

Anyhow, in the end she went and opened her door so I could see with my own eyes that the kids were fine, and I apologized to them. Apparently last year they had an accident with a transport and wrote their car off, so she figured this wouldn't scar them at all.

By the time we were getting back into our cars she was asking if I was okay (my hands were shaking when I gave her my number, just in case).

What a totally cool person. She could have been all "You hit my car you moron" but she was nice.

Imagine if EVERYONE tried to be nice? All the time?

(oh and for those of you who are familiar with my driving "skills" I really have never hit anyone before and NO I WAS NOT SPEEDING. For once.)

3 comments:

Lisa Wheeler Milton said...

So much better than what it could be.

I really wish that there was a little more grace and kindness in the world, a little more benefit of the doubt.

Glad you are ok too.

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

So glad everyone was okay!

My friend was in an accident like that recently and also had such a nice experience. Pay it forward, right?

Nora said...

I love a story about kindness. I did the same thing to a mean, mean lady who got out and started screaming at me even though my tiny car had not even left a scratch on her enormous car.