Who ever would have predicted that forgetting my wallet would land my sons car in the pond?
True story.
I left for work early, hustling.
I felt like something was missing from my usual pile of phone wallet laptop but… it didn’t occur to me that my trusty little wallet was not there.
I got to work and realized my wallet wasn’t with me, and I really needed it. I needed to go to the store after work. You know, for the constant influx of groceries needed to feed three adult sized kids. And their friends.
I remembered that my son had a couple free blocks in the middle of the day, and as a senior he could leave.
I asked him to run home and grab my wallet. He was happy to! He’s really good like that.
One problem- when he got home he couldn’t find it.
Well, shit.
I told him not to worry about it, no big deal.
I was in a meeting but still half thinking about where it could be. It had to be there. He just didn’t see it. I’d find it in two seconds because that’s how it always goes. Right moms? Right?
A few minutes later I texted him to look on my desk. I didn’t think it’d be there but you never know. It had to be somewhere. I’d just used it the day before at the grocery store then, too.
And that’s how cars end up in ponds.
When you are driving out of the driveway and your mom texts you to look one last place, so you throw it in park, which is actually reverse, and run back in the house.
He didn’t find the wallet, and when he came back out, the car was…. Gone!
I can only imagine the panic. In fact I can imagine it. The weak, sinking, numbing, terror panic feeling. It’s the worst feeling ever. One of them anyway.
The car wasn’t gone. It had just rolled backwards into the pond.
INTO THE POND
what are the fucking odds?
He called me, so upset, feeling sooooo bad.
But he’d thought quick and stabilized the car with the tractor so it didn’t actually sink.. all the way!
And he did save it because otherwise it would have sank to the bottom, right along with a canoe I think is down there, from years ago when I was getting divorced and I didn’t pull it out before winter and then- well I realized in the spring I didn’t know where it was. Because sometimes even pulling a canoe out of a pond is just too much.
I left work.
I called Tim (my partner, who’s a mechanic and logger and general magician when it comes to problems like these).
He left his garage.
We both rushed home.
Tim jumped on the tractor, there was no getting the car out with it.
We called a wrecker.
They were fully amused.
The duck in the pond kept quacking.
The car came out.
We all laughed, and hugged my kid, and told him shit happens. He was trying to help!
We met the situation with love and understanding.
The wrecker driver asked for a copy of my book. His wife wanted one he said.
Everyone is looking for answers he said.
I wrote what helped me, I explained. And it helped me and Tim together, too.
He nodded and Tim did too.
This was a great affirmation to me that the work I am doing is working. It’s not embarrasing to want to grow, to learn to love and be loved better. It’s actually really fucking cool, and more and more people from all walks of life are realizing it.
Later in the day I found my wallet. It was in my car the whole time, left there the day before. In my defense it had slipped under the drivers seat from the back, so it WAS hard to see.
The car horn and lights would blare and flicker here and there until we disconnected the battery. We tried to start it. Water bubbled in the headlights. It almost turned over!
We will let it dry a few days and see what happens. Tim said no water in the oil, so, you never know.
The good thing is, cars are replaceable, kids aren’t. If that’s his car accident story, I’ll take it.
And what an opportunity to extend grace and love and understanding all around.
No shame in an accident.
At dinner we laughed as my kid told us how mad he was at the duck, quacking at him as the car sank.
That’s how a forgotten wallet that wasn’t actually forgotten, lands a car in a pond.
We all got closer yesterday, more love not less, which is the heart of all the answers so many of us are looking for.
For info on how to buy my book visit www.motherroadvt.com