Oh, God they're killing me, but at least She survived it.

 Last night, Thursday I get home a little after seven or so. I open up a bottle of beer and then a second one. I'm chilling out. Teri and I are having leftovers for dinner. Nastia has a piece of fish and then she will be going to a friends house. Elena gets out of work about eight.

Long about eight-twenty, the phone rings and Teri and I see it is Elena. Teri picks it up. Immediately she says Elena, calm down, what happened, a few moments later, call 911, where are you? At this point I'm rushing for my coat and shoes. I come back waiting to find out where she is and what happened. I think I hear Old Mill Rd and I'm off. I get in the car and I'm off. What I know about what happened is very little at this point. I thought I hear she hit someone. If she did she stayed at the scene and that was good. I'm doing fifty on King's Highway, my mind is racing thinking about the possibilities I might encounter when I get there. In the back of my mind I register the thought I've had two bottles of beer. I turn onto Old Mill Road and slow down. I don't want to come up on the accident and cause more problems. I cross over the end of Lake De Forest and come up the hill. I get to the place Elena had the flat tire that bent the rim on her tire and I see flashing light. I see a hunk of metal that used to be Elena's car. It's next to a telephone pole. I pull past it get out and see her sitting in her car with the door open, feet on the

ground. I go down to her or she come to me, I don't know. I hug her, hold her and I'm just glad she is alive. She's angry and upset, I tell her it's okay, she's alive and that is all that matters. I talk quietly to her and when she begins to cry, a rare event for her, I tell her to let it out, she is safe and alive and the car can be replaced. Teri shows up in her car, asking if she is ok, I say yes. She parks past me. I tell Elena to go sit in my car. The paramedics show up. They want to do a once over on her and maybe even take her to Nyack Hospital for some x-rays. She doesn't want to go. I sit down in the car and try to get her to go. I'm having no success. Teri says let me talk to her. I get out and she gets in, I walk away. I need to process this and try and come to terms with the fact my daughter almost died. 

This next story is related to me by Teri later that night. She gets into the car to convince Elena to go to the Hospital. She says, "I'm out here without a bra, my boobs are hanging down to my waist, I've got slippers and socks on and feel like I should be shopping at Walmart, you're going to the Hospital." She says at that point she hears someone chuckling and turns around, one of the paramedics heard what she said. 

Elena agrees to go to the Hospital. She gets on the gurney and they wheel her into the Ambulance. Teri follows, I stay to wait for the Tow truck, I don't know why. I hang around, I go over to the car looking for my daughters glasses, I'm lost, I feel we came so close to loosing her this night. 

The tow truck comes and I tell him I want the car driven over to Rt 303 Auto body and I don't want him to touch it until he says he will. He then makes the mistake of answering me with "If I do that I need to get paid first." That sets off my temper which is one of my defenses in bad situations like this. "What do you want." I yell, "I'll write you a fucken check right now if you want." At that point he steps back and the officer in charge steps in. I realize I have gone overboard, but I can't stop talking right away. The officer finally gets me to listen to him. He explains the car is totaled and it would be just as easy for the tow truck driver to take it to his place and the insurance company to deal with getting it paid for. I listen. I ask the tow truck driver his his name, it's Frank. I say "Frank, I'm sorry, take the car." It turns out he is the guy who bought or at least works out of Chris Kelly's old place. God, I knew Chris was alway extra fair with me, but I never really knew just how much he  did for me until these last few months. I hope he is happy in Tennessee. 

I leave to go to the hospital. I really don't need to watch them take the car off of the rocks. I ask everyone to be on the lookout for a pair of glasses and I leave.

The hospital is in a COVID-19 lock down. This is ok, I'm lost, COVID procedures have become common and almost comforting in their familiarity. I get my temperature checked
and then I am told to go get a pass to see my daughter. If there is someone else with her I have to wait. I'm exhausted, it's cold, so I turn around and go to the car and call Teri. She says Elena is going for an x-ray and Teri will meet me in the waiting room, where you can't wait because of COVID (which I am a full supporter of) I get my pass and how anyone will ever tell it is me I don't know. I stand back from the booth and the guy takes my license. He photographs me and somewhere in in distance in that picture is me wearing a mask and a hat, and it is in black and white. 

I go into the emergency area and after a little help from the front desk I find Elena's room, it's empty. I wait and she comes back. We talk about what I don't know. Everyone who has been scared and is in the hospital know what we talked about. It was nothing important, yet it needed to be said, to reassure the scared that the other person is still alive.

I call Teri and we switch. Teri says I should go home, so  I head out to my car, but I have to do something, something so I can feel like I made a difference on the night I could have lose my daughter. As I drive up 9W toward Congers, turning onto Lake Road, I start to wonder if the car has been moved and if anyone has found Elena's glasses. I pass South Harrison Avenue and turn left onto King's Highway. I figure Orange and Rockland will be replacing the pole, but maybe someone found her glasses or if not I could look. I come around the turn and take the dip in the road. I remember doing this turn earlier and my mind racing wondering what I would find. I see the accident scene in the distance, or I think I do because it is all dark, no one is there. I slow, the road is empty, it is after all 10PM on a Thursday. I slow down more thinking the crash site is real close. Then I hear the crunch of broken glass from my tires. I pull off the road and walk back to the telephone pole she hit. In the dark it doesn't look bad. In the daylight I would see two six or so foot pieces of wood attached on either side and a hole, in the ground where she moved the base of the pole. I begin to look around. There are leaves and tree branches covering the ground. I move as little as possible hoping the glasses are on top. After a few

minutes I start moving leaves and tossing branches. It gets to the point that the two lights I have two flash lights that don't seem bright enough. I'm losing hope of finding the glasses. I remember back to the time about ten years ago when Elena and Nastia were little kids playing in the snow. Somehow Elena loses both lenses in her glasses in the snow. I was able to find one that day, but the other one didn't show up until Spring. I can't wait for Spring.

I start looking again I'm on the verge of giving up when right in front of me blending in pretty well with the leaves are her glasses. They are dirty, but in one piece. I am relieved and declare victory. I get into the car and text Teri and Elena, I found her glasses. Teri texts back asking if I may have gotten Elena's wallet from the car. I reply no and I take a look at the tow truck drivers card. He's in Nyack and the address sounds familiar. I enter it into my phone and head to Nyack. I follow the route and end up at Chris Kelly's old yard. I catch the tow truck driver, Frank just as he is leaving. I tell him I want to get my daughter's wallet out of her car. It's a quick and easy. I head home happy with myself. Somewhere
on 9W, after thinking I might just drop off my treasures at the hospital for Elena, I get a call from Teri, she gives me her, "where are you?" I tell her I'm on 9w and I'll be home in ten minutes. I go on to explain how I went to the tow truck drivers lot. While I was hunting for Elena's things, the hospital released Elena twenty or so minutes ago. Somehow she is fine. I feel a little better and thank god again for her being able to walk away from the accident.

That Saturday Elena and I go to finish cleaning out the car. My
first thought upon seeing the car is it
didn't all make it to the lot, only half of it is here. Three tires are off the car, the fourth hanging on by a lug nut. I begin pulling things out of the trunk, but it seems everything in there is jammed between the crushed metal of the truck and the bumper. I manage to get a vest out, the packing blanket I like them to carry for emergencies and I find the mythical jacket that Elena always says she has in the car when she is leaving without a jacket on. Several bottles of water have died in the accident, thankfully they are the only casualties. I try to get the radio out, but i'm not twenty-five anymore and I hurt my neck when I slide under the dash to check it out. I'll have a headache for the rest of the day. We end our treasure hunt. Frank the tow truck owner says all he needs is the title and a check because we didn't have collision on Elena's car. Why would she need it on an old car. Allstate would total it and we'd get so little so who needs it. Well I found out who needs it. I bitched and complained about the five hundred dollar tow, but Allstate paid it in full. This one we're on the hook for and I quietly write him a check. I return later with the title to put an end to this upsetting chapter. A good car died on Old Mill Road that Thursday. We repaired it when we should have dumped it. It ran well and there was nothing wrong with it five second before Elena decided to pass someone who cut her off on Old Mill Road. It was a stupid angry mistake she could have paid for with her life. Thank God the bill wasn't that expensive. Teri and I would have never gotten over it. 

I was a careless and immature driver when I was Elena's age. I'd get angry and do things that scare me now to think about. Somehow I survived those years. God has blessed me with two incredible children. I missed the first eight and ten years of their lives and at least in this instant he has let me keep both of them for now. I've told them many times I don't want to identify their dead bodies at an accident scene, it'd kill me.

What I gather happened that night is Elena is heading north (away from West Nyack toward Valley Cottage) on Old Mill Road. At Snake Hill Road, a truck turns right from Snake Hill Road cutting her off and in the process pissing her off. She decides to pass him on Old Mill Road, OLD MILL ROAD!, I remember when they were afraid to simply drive normally on that road!! She starts to pass him somewhere near the old Tilcon offices, now United Water offices. The accident was described as a road rage accident, so maybe he didn't let her pass easily. Somewhere during this another car is traveling towards them. The following is mostly guess work. The officer on scene said she hit the front bumper of the guy she was passing. When you look at her passenger side rear door, how it is all smashed in and the fact she hit the telephone pole trunk first, she must have hit the guy's bumper, spun around went through the loose rock wall hitting the pole with her trunk, but not settling there because the car was next to the pole, the truck facing the road.  Either way she was really moving and is oh so lucky to be alive today. It's been a week and in another reality they are attending a funeral for their daughter who wasn't as lucky as our. I hope she knows it and it changes the way she drives and lives her life.

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