Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Ascending to the Zenith

For the last couple of years, a nice young boy has gotten on the school bus with Rudi for the trip to school in Woodstock.  He is a nice little kid, perhaps seven years of age, with a nice young mom, a friendly, easygoing dad, and three little sisters. I don't often walk Rudi to the bus, but occasionally I do, and get to talk to the boy and either of his parents, just the usual friendly stuff, as I don't really know them that well.

A couple of months ago, another lady was waiting at the bus stop with the boy, and introduced herself as his grandmother. We chatted briefly, and the boy told me he had a sleepover at his grandmothers house, and really enjoyed it!

A week or so later, I again saw the boys mother, and told her that I had met the boys grandmother, and was wondering if it was her or her husband's mother. She replied that the boys grandmother actually the mother of the boys birth mother, who had passed away about five years ago...

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Descending to the Nadir...

About five years ago, I was driving south from Shakespeare to Tavistock, following a tractor trailer, on a bright, clear, sunny day. Without any warning, the truck ahead began braking hard, white smoke billowing out from the back wheels as his rear set of axles locked up. I was far enough behind, but still had to stand hard on my brakes to avoid rear ending the rig. Hazards clicked on, I moved to the right shoulder and stopped my van just behind the truck.
 
I walked along the shoulder to the front of the truck, and a scene of destruction and carnage was laid out before me. Two vehicles, both light coloured, as I recall, were scattered across the roadway, crushed and twisted. Contents of one or both of the vehicles was strewn in a roughly curved path, perhaps fifty or more feet long... Clothing, a small backpack, stuffed animals, a blanket, bags and sacks, books, toys, and such, strewn about after an obviously extremely violent head on collision. I walked forward, noticing that a number of Northbound vehicles had already stopped, at the far side of the collision area.
 
A number of men were already out of their own vehicles (I think one was a utility or maintenance crew) checking on the occupants of the vehicles. I approached the vehicle closest to me, noticing a man already talking with the female driver, who was alive, yet in shock, dazed, and confused. In her car I noticed an infant in the back, secured in a child seat, now wailing at the top of his lungs. Others had arrived, and knowing there were enough to help out, and that the work crew guys had already contacted 911, I told the man at the first car I would go back up the road and close it until police arrived.

I got back to my van, turned it around, and drove quickly up to the intersection with Pork Road, just about a mile away. I stopped a few hundred feet south of the intersection, with my van parked in the middle of the road, high beams on and flashers going.  I walked to the intersection, and then began directing traffic either left or right on Pork road. Five minutes later the first OPP cruiser came by, stopped to ask if I was closing the road for the collsion, then told me to keep it closed until an officer relieved me. Two more cruisers came by, a few emergency vehicles, finallly an ambulance, and after about 20 minutes, an OPP officer returned, thanked me, and let me go on my way...