JUST DRIVE

I've been putting this post off for a couple of weeks or so.....

Let me start by saying this.....

A couple of weeks ago I was out with a friend, I was driving, and I switched lanes. 

I did NOT see the car behind me that honked his horn. 

He was in my blind spot. 

Lucky for me I did not hit him. 

When he pulled up beside me, I rolled down my window and apologized profusely.  

We've all done it. 

Sometimes we don't even know it.  I remember last summer I was driving down the street and a police officer turned around right in the middle of the road, right beside me, flipped on his siren,  and forced me into another lane instantly, or we would have collided.  Lucky for me there wasn't anyone in the other lane.  And he never even knew he did it. 

BUT

IT SEEMS THAT NO ONE PAYS ATTENTION DRIVING ANYMORE

And it has affected our family tremendously.

We all think it won't happen to us.

On August 5, the night I was out with my sister celebrating at Wolfies,

in a town nearby, my cousin's daughter was killed. 

Of course we didn't know it at the time.

I got a text from my dear cousin Gloria,  in the middle of the night.

The beautiful lady that was killed was Gloria's sister's daughter. 

Pam's daughter, Missy, and her husband, Kris were on a motorcycle.

A van pulled out in front of them.

Missy was killed, almost instantly.

You can't stop a motorcycle on a dime.

Kris is still in the hospital and will be for a long time.

I have lost count of how many surgeries he has had.

They waited three weeks to hold Missy's funeral and Kris still was not permitted to attend.

Missy was 40 years old.

She has a daughter starting her senior year in high school, and a son that is 21 and engaged.

This all sounds like a nightmare that no one thinks will ever happen to them.

No one does something like this on purpose. 

ACCIDENTS HAPPEN

I imagine the driver of that van has wished and what iffed a million times since that night.  He has probably asked a million times, "why didn't I see that motorcycle?"  Alcohol was not involved.  I don't know if a phone was involved. 

This one instant changed the life of so many people.  

I wish I could end this post here,

but I cannot.

Two weeks later my niece was crossing the road to get the mail.  On her way back across the road,  she was struck by a car. 

The woman driving was single, has two children born in the United States, but she is illegal, no drivers license, no insurance, no valid plates, and she was out driving the next day.

(and please don't get political on me here, this is not a political post)

This is my niece.

This is where her head hit the windshield

She has a broken foot, stitches in her arm, and was being watched for a concussion.

If she were smaller she probably would have been killed.

I wasn't going to post pictures, but I think pictures make it real. 

So why not make it real.

It is to our family.  

PLEASE

When you are driving, pay attention, and

JUST DRIVE.

Nothing else.

JUST DRIVE

Cindy