Feeling like a she's been hit by a car... No, really!

The hardest part of raising a child is teaching them to ride bicycles. A shaky child on a bicycle for the first time needs both support and freedom. The realization that this is what the child will always need can hit hard.

~Sloan Wilson

There's a certain feeling that only parents get to experience, and it's never under the best of circumstances. That feeling is the intense rush of adrenaline that suffuses your body when you answer the phone and someone informs you that a son or daughter has just been involved in a car accident.

I've been on both sides of this experience, once as a kid, and the other, twice now, as the parent. Experiencing the car accident as a newly minted teenage driver is nothing like experiencing a car accident as a parent, knowing what a car accident can do, and not knowing exactly what has happened to the child you've been taking care of for her entire life.

As the kid, I knew it was a bad thing that had happened, but it happened to me, and since I was aware of how I felt, everything else was no big deal. I now know that my parents were scared out of their wits until the moment they saw me and could see for themselves what was what, and thankfully, that I was going to be alright. Of course after they figured out I was okay, I found out they were mad enough to want to injure me themselves... (and were probably right!)

On Thursday morning I got the call from Laura. KJ, who was up at college, had been crossing a street on the way to classes and was hit by a car while in the crosswalk. Laura had received a call from a Campus healthcenter nurse, and was already racing up I-79 to Erie to meet up with KJ. Details were few and sketchy, but the bottom line was that she had been hit and thrown to the ground; depite her assault, she was healthy enough to get up and stagger to the health center. I'm sure anger and shock had set in, and she in no way wanted to lay in the street or stay with the man who had hit her, even if he was decent enough to stop and call 911.

Laura gave me the phone number for the healthcenter, and I immediately called. I was able to talk to KJ and found her sounding shaky, but basically strong. Finding refuge and care at the healthcenter allowed her to calm down and feel more in control and she was able to tell me how she was doing. Nothing obviously broken, but several bruises, including a whopper on her thigh where she'd been hit; and an aching head from smacking it on the pavement when she landed.

We agreed on her going to the hospital ER to get checked out, not only for the obvious injuries, but also for how she had weathered the blow to her healed pelvis, injured in a previous incident two years ago. That's where Laura met up with her an hour later. It was with much relief I received the best phone call you can get: the one that tells you that everything is going to be just fine, and despite all the trauma and disorientation your child has experienced, things will work out.

So, KJ came home this weekend. She was planning on coming home anyway on her own, but circumstances determined she'd get an extra day with us, cuz there's nothing much better when you are sore and aching, than to be in familiar territory and among loved ones who are dedicated to taking care of you and making you feel comfortable.

On the dark humor side of this story is the reality that this is KJ's second run-in (literally) with automobiles. My brother Dave recognized this and has issued this warning:

TAKE CARE AROUND KJ:

• Do not play golf with KJ when lightning is nearby.
• Do not go into brick buildings with KJ in earthquake-prone areas.
• When crossing the street with KJ, let her go first.
• Dissuade KJ from going into the mirror-sales profession.
• Given the choice to cross KJ's path or a black cat's, choose the kitty.
• On sports teams, KJ is required to wear number 13 and a bubble-wrap uniform.
• For presents, consider giving KJ a rabbit's foot, a four-leaf clover, a horseshoe, or a photocopy cut-out of Brett Farve's game-day beard.
• When shopping for a lottery ticket, have KJ wait in the car.
• If KJ visits New York city, tell her Wall Street is closed for street-sweeping.
• Whenever possilbe, beseech St. Christopher to pay a little more attention to a certain brunette from Zelienople, PA.