The Lord and His Legions of Angels

Sometimes my humor fails me. This would be one of those times. Don’t get me wrong, I am not unhappy, far from it actually. But sometimes something that happens in your life just cannot be translated into humor.

Yesterday was one of those days.

I mentioned on Friday that Shoe Queen was coming home for the 4th of July holiday. She a hard working girl! She has THREE jobs. And it is hard to get time off when you work that many different places. But she had scored five precious days off and was planning to drive to Chez Knit, see some friends, make her momma and daddy happy and maybe go to the parade.

Sunday morning started out as usual. I overslept a bit (6:50a EGADS!). But we don’t leave for church until 9:20a so all was good. About 9a Shoe Queen sent me a text to say that she was on her way.

Rejoicing!!!

HHBL and I were on our way to church right on time and sitting down in the pew just about 9:30a with a minute or so to spare. I was just getting settled when I thought,

Hmmmmmm, I had better check to make sure that my ringer is turned to silent.

There are few things more embarrassing than having your cell phone go off in church, usually during prayer. So I picked my purse up, dug out my phone, turned it over…

And noticed that Shoe Queen was calling me.

And my first thought was, This isn’t going to be good

Me: Hi

Shoe Queen: Mommy (in a shaky voice).

Me: What’s wrong!! (I knew by her voice). Are you OK??

Shoe Queen: Mommy I have had an accident. I am SO sorry I think I might have totaled the car.

Me: Are you alright? Tell me that you are alright! I don’t care about the car, I want to know that you are alright.

Those are just about the worst words a mother can hear on a Sunday morning when you are in Ohio and your progeny is in Illinois. Totally helpless. Unable to rush to your child’s side and take care of whatever needs to be done.

Obviously we didn’t make it through church.

The gist of the story is that while trying to avoid another motorist Shoe Queen’s car fish tailed, then did a 360 in the middle of the Tri-State toll way and then ended up having a close and costly encounter with the median wall.

Not good. Not good at all.

BUT, and this is the part that we are still amazed about.

Shoe Queen was not injured AT ALL other than a bit of a stiff neck.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Tri-State toll way, it is one of the busiest roadways in the Chicago area. If this had been 8:30a on a Monday morning rather than a Sunday morning the outcome would have been different and much, much worse. The roadway would have been full of cars and big trucks zooming to their destinations.

The Lord and a legion of angels protected her. That is all that I can think. And then He sent someone, the woman who witnessed the accident, to pull over and check to see if Shoe Queen was OK and to stay with her until the police came, which was very quick indeed.

And then there were the Parental Units, Mimi and Papa, who dropped everything, closed up the cottage, hopped in the car and drove to the toll way stop closest to the accident site to pick up Shoe Queen.

AND THEN we told them, Don’t take her home, take her to Midway Airport. We have found a flight for her on Southwest Airlines, leaving at 2:15p, so that we can get her home and love on her a bit and make sure that she is fine. Nothing like changing horses in the middle of the stream.

We heaved a big sigh of relief when we saw her walk out of the secure area of the airport I can tell you. Can I tell you how much I love SWA.

And The Lord and His Legion of Angels protected my baby from harm!!!