Tag: safety

When life is but a whisper away from death

December 29, 2018

It’s about a year ago that Man of the Woods and I became very lucky parents. Our daughter – then 19 – crashed her car and turned it over. We didn’t lose her. In fact she was the luckiest girl as she only lost a few of her long hairs when the shattered windscreen nipped the ends and pulled some from her scalp, presumably when the car landed. You can read about it here. At the time I asked her permission to put it on social media to illustrate the brilliance of seatbelts to other young drivers.

I’ve just driven home from a friend’s and although there was no frost, I thought about her and once again realised how lucky we were to have her here this Christmas and for me to be able to take this photo. Someone must have been looking after her.

I was inspired to write a quick poem before bed … goodnight folks

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

When life is but a breath away from being not so,

As delicate as a whisper beside your ear.

Take it not for granted, pause, watch and see,

Hear, feel and taste life while it is still here.

💫

Worry less about the things you cannot change,

Don’t yearn for the past because it is done.

Avoid waiting for a future full of uncertain promises.

Grab the lapels of today, breath in and feel it on your tongue.

I’m pretty seething right now .. and can’t sleep

June 16, 2018

I read this idly this morning at one point during my usual in and outs to the kitchen… didn’t think any more of it. Just one of those articles which won’t really affect me.

Until one phone call from twenty year old daughter at 10:30pm who wanted to update me on her evening’s events.

On a train in East Anglian travelling from Liverpool Street out onto a station not on the mainline. A journey she’s done many times before to her boyfriend’s. He was waiting for her as normal.

Two stops away, she’s reading her book having come straight from work, wearing black thick tights (she only wears the expensive ones from M&S) and a neat skirt which sits just above the knee when seated.

A middle aged lady gets up to get off and beckons daughter over and informs her that the mature gentleman she’s been sat next to has been taking some ‘inappropriate’ photos of her and she’d like her to take her business card as she’s going to report him to the police.

Daughter’s head now in spin, turns to look at man who meets her eyes, gets up and moves to different carriage.

Lady gets off but they’ve kept in touch and she’s checked daughter is ok, which she wasn’t. Luckily BF there to scoop up one now scared and worried daughter and the following two hours is spent on phone to police who ring her back to confirm Transport Police have looked at CCTV and have identified the carriage and can clearly see his iPad at a relevant angle.

What the fuck they are then planning to do about it I don’t know…..

Should the helpful lady have spoken up in the carriage the minute she noticed the photos (she’d been sat next to him whereas daughter was diagonally opposite in an aisle seat). My mind is racing that they were both in on it…. can’t be… she would not have called the police, would she.

I can’t sleep now. Daughter is fine although she says she feels violated. She’s to give one more official statement tomorrow …. but really – what can they do? She was not harmed or attacked in any way… though this lady was presumably attempting to ‘do the right thing’ ?

I mean yeah … she’s young and pretty and she’ll be letched over, daily. But usually it’s silently and she’ll never know it’s happening (but we all know it is) yet this guy had the gall to do what the new bill is hoping to what? STOP? You’re having a laugh … I’d like to see you/government put this one into practice. She needs, as we all do, to remain vigilant, be aware of iPhones and iPads positioned at suspicious angles and maybe even have the confident to ask “excuse me, are you taking photos?” and say it really loudly with lots of witnesses.

There are some serious creeps out there. I might Twitter about this …. I’m really angry 😡

Let’s be serious for a moment…. how protected do you feel?

March 22, 2018

My little travelling companion. I named him L’herbe, due to his being on the cafe table when I was giggling in Paris one evening (you can’t imagine that can you?)…

He went everywhere with me… he was my talisman. I am devastated to admit that I did in fact leave him behind in Greece last summer; it still hurts to recall the moment I realised he was not in my case.

(I promise L’herbe will have a WHOLE post dedicated to his adventures 🐻)

Today, The Story Reading Ape (whose blog name has always fascinated me) has posted today a very useful piece of information linked with all that FB data sharing business…. protect yourself because who else will if you don’t?????

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/talisman/”>Talisman</a&gt;

Seatbelt safety. Cozy

December 28, 2017

So when my daughter rang this morning, after leaving to drive to the hair salon for a pre-booked cut, little did I expect to receive a call from her fifteen minutes later, and through the tears, make out;

“Mummy…. I’ve had an accident….. The car is on its roof.”

Never have you seen my departure from the house be so swift; grabbing keys, coat and confused husband in the process. I thrust to his chest area my mobile as we entered the truck and I reversed out of the drive, proceeding to take the same route she had only minutes before.

Black ice hid around every bend on the country lanes, it’s black poisoned fingers clawing their way silently across the tarmac.

The sun had killed some of it, where the hedges gave way to gaps and the rays had melted, then dried the results of yesterday’s rainfall.

As I drove and he held her panicky voice in his hands, her wails spilling from the smartphone screen, she suddenly sounded like the four year old who had cut her chin open tripping on a step, or the scared twelve year old stood on Stratford Station after a ‘big independent girls’ day out but finding the trains home cancelled. That tone in their voice which hits the very core of parenthood … I still need you.

As we raced our way to her, whilst driving as slowly as I could bare to, we knew she would be about to experience a whole procedure with policemen and tests and questions. Her car was blocking the lane and as we drew closer, she was stood hugging herself looking smaller than her 5’8″ stature.

How the hell did she walk away from THAT?

I pulled over to park to the side of a driveway, tears starting to flow of their own accord. I knew she was fine; she’d telephoned us and I could clearly see her standing there on the verge, but the overwhelming emotion when I saw that car filled my whole body with shivers.

My common sense translated the scene in front of me while my imagination re-wrote events. It did this immediately, the bastard. I saw my daughter’s head smashed against the driver’s window, her unconscious body unable to make her escape before another driver of a more heavy vehicle sees the obstruction in time.

She walked over to hug me and we held each other tightly, longer than our hello/goodbye hugs.

“I don’t know how it happened. It was so quick.”

“The car doesn’t matter darling; you are safe. Honestly, it’s all that matters.” I talked into her hair as I held her, tears still coming from us both.

The police had already been called by a generous young man who happened on the scene, and had kindly stopped to check the driver. He had rung the police for her and gently suggested she turn the engine off as it was still running. She sat keeping warm in his car following her initial call to us. I do not recall his name – she did mention it – but we shook his hand warmly on handover and thanked him for stopping. Bless those souls who pause in their day for others.

The police duly arrived; two patrol cars to cordon off the lane from each direction. One interviewed our worried daughter, helped her relax and explained how the breathalyser worked. She passed this; her most recent tipple had been Boxing Day.

The second rang the recovery people who arrived only 30 minutes later and established that an upside down car should stay upside down on the transport lorry due to leakages already inevitably going on.

The scraping sounds as our daughter’s first car was winched unceremoniously but expertly off the road, filled my mind with further visions of the sounds she would have endured an hour earlier.

Someone was looking on our family today. This evening she is with her wonderful boyfriend – I drove her to him myself – because tomorrow they fly out together to Amsterdam for New Year.

He was as relieved as we were to discover his girlfriend is in one beautiful peace and needs only moral support and hugs. Lots of them. He will keep her cozy this evening.

I cannot speak highly enough of seatbelt safety. Had she not been wearing one, I may not have been typing this. I may have been sat beside her bed in A&E. Or worse.

Daily word prompt – COZY

(posted with my daughter’s knowledge and acceptance that to share a positive outcome such as this, may help other young drivers)

#family #safety #police #anxiety #love #motherhood<a href=”http://Cozy” target=”_blank”>COZY<a href=”http://Cozy“>seatbelt