Brenda’s Blog – August 13, 2024
“The car is in the house! The car is in the house!”
My office phone rang. As I answered I heard my Dad saying, “Your Mother says her car is in the house. You are closer to her than I am, so would you go now and I will meet you there?” How could I possibly know what “the car is in the house” meant.
When I walked into the house I realized she was right – her car passed through the garage wall, crashing into the built in china cabinet on the other side. The breakfast room table stopped the forward motion just shy of a kitchen wall holding the sink. Mom climbed through the passenger window onto the table, lifted herself down and immediately called Dad repeating over and over “Fred! Fred! The car is in the house! The car is in the house!”
Dad collected the shards of china, porcelain, and crystal formerly stored on the glass shelves of the cabinet, gathering them into three bags. As he handed one to each adult child he declared, “Here is your inheritance.”
Mom’s days of driving and independence ceased on that day. To the end of her life she maintained the car failed, propelling it through the garage wall. We all knew her foot hit the accelerator instead of the brake as she entered from one of her favorite afternoon outings to NorthPark Center. That one mistake eliminated her freedom, and the option to go because her “wheels” (and her keys) were no longer available.
That table sits in my home decades later after being refurnished by a loving son in law as a house warming gift for me.
We may never drive our car into the house, but undoubtedly many of us will experience life altering events which change us. There will be times when the difficult times make me want to cry “the car is in the house!” And when I do I know the very same God who watched over my Mom is with me. How grateful I am for a God who cares on the good days – and especially on those terrible, awful ones.