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I Wanted To Suck The Marrow Out Of The Last Three Weeks Of Summer
Life has interfered with this plan.
Life felt like heaven.
This was supposed to be the summer of my life. I was finally leaving Toronto, a place that I haven’t really enjoyed living in since the 1980s when I was a young university student. We were moving to Michigan. Woo hoo!
First of all, my husband and I were fortunate to find a beautiful house purely by chance. The real estate market in our town is hot right now, with very few properties available. Nevertheless, we found a newish ranch-style home in an adorable neighborhood for a laughably affordable price by Toronto standards. Every day I wake up in this house unable to believe I not only actually live here, but that I own it.
Not only is the house perfect, but it is just down the road from a lake with a cute little sandy swimming beach. Hubby and I went swimming there once, intending to come back often.
The house and neighborhood were supposed to make our lives perfect. And it felt like they did for a few weeks.
In a second, everything changed.
Then the accident happened.
We were taking our son to see the beautiful gardens at the local university. We drove about three miles when a driver turned left in front of us. I heard my husband yell “What the *#%!”, then I heard a loud bang before opening my eyes to see the front of the car in a ditch. The other driver had smashed into our car and destroyed it along with his own. We quickly exited the burning car.
I don’t know if he was trying to commit vehicular homicide or even suicide, or if he was just distracted. But the upshot was that our car stopped in the ditch just short of a pond, the airbags deployed, and the seatbelt cut into my right shoulder, breaking my clavicle. My husband and stepson suffered minor bruising and cervical strain.
A group of people stopped to help and called 911. The emergency crew arrived in less than three minutes. The firemen put out…
