To this day, my mom would probably still tell me she could be driving. A woman who has no control over her legs, who when seated in a car can't pick her feet up enough to get them out of the car, a woman who thinks like a five year old could still be driving. No.
She stopped driving in 2014. I'd like to tell you that we all sat down and made a rational decision about mom not driving anymore. Also, no.
About a year prior to that when my dad was in his rehab stay, I saw her have her first recorded car wreck. I had pulled in to a spot at rehab and she was just behind me. She pulled into a handicapped spot. Although the lot was fairly flat it did slope away from the building where she was parked.
As I walked towards the door I watch her car start to back out of her spot. I thought at first she was repositioning her car to be in the spot better. As I got closer, I realized she wasn't paying any attention to the car and its movement. She appeared to be looking through her handbag. Although I tried to call out and get her attention, I was neither quick enough nor loud enough. The next moment she bashed into what turned out to be a staff person's car parked in the row behind her.
In early February of 2014, Dad totaled his car while driving to a basketball game in our former home town. His description of the wreck was one I could see myself doing. He had gotten off in downtown, it was dark and raining. He followed the car in front of him through an intersection where by the time he arrived in the middle had a red light. Boom! He got a new car.
About a month later, I got a call from someone at the hospital, there was my mom in the ER, pretty banged up. Oddly, my dad, once again, was at a basketball game. Her job was to get dinner and be back at the house with it when he got home. She drove down a divided highway near her house towards the restaurant she had chosen. She should have made a left onto the road on which the restaurant was located. Instead traffic was heavy and backed up. She decided she'd make a right turn into a large shopping area and proceed through that area and go straight across from that area to her road at the next intersection. As she turned right in what I think was a right on red, another car appeared. I've always assumed it must have been turning left into the center and had an arrow. Mom struck this car and then things went sideways. Mom apparently hit the gas, jumped the curb, crossed over the sidewalk and went down the embankment to the parking lot of the restaurant below the road level. There she struck a parked car. Thankfully mom was okay.
While at the hospital, a police officer showed up. He was an accident specialist. He told us he had no idea what had happened. Normally he could follow marks on the pavement, but grass did not show marks. I later went out, parked and walked to the intersection. Mom was fortunate on many fronts, there was a center sign made out of brick and a light pole she could have hit. Much like the police officer I never quite understood what happened.
Thankfully Dad refused to let mom drive his new car and told her he could not afford to buy her another car.
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