April 26 – “The Phantom Strikes”

Today Mom’s respirations are very shallow, and she is having more and more periods of apnea – not breathing.  I know I keep saying this, but it really shouldn’t be much longer.  We are amazed she has kept going this long.

We did have some excitement over here last night, though.  About 2 in the morning, to be exact.  What happened?  Hit and run.  Yep.  Right in front of our house.  The hospice night nurse had her car parked in the street next to the oleander bush.  Chris and I had both been on couches dozing.  I had just returned to my perch when I heard a loud crash.  It didn’t wake up Chris right away, so I paused a few seconds to see how the dogs would react.  Sure enough they started barking, so I jumped up and started to the street.  The nurse said, “I sure hope someone didn’t hit my car.”  How’s that for foreshadowing?  There was not a soul to be seen anywhere outside.  But something did seem amiss.  The nurse’s car was about halfway into our driveway.  It looked OK at first glance.  Just seemed odd that she would have parked like that, obstructing our car.  I decided to walk out into the street and look around.  And from there … it was a mess.

Debris was scattered everywhere.  And the left rear of her car was completely smashed in.  Kind of stunned, I looked around for any evidence of the car that hit her.  But there was none.  Nothing.  I was hoping for an errant license plate so it would be easy to track the perpetrator.  But he left absolutely no trace.  A phantom.  A wrecker driver arrived well before the police officer, and he followed the same procedure I had, looking for telltale signs of the other vehicle.  Nothing.  His best guess was that the other driver had been going at least 40 miles per hour and hadn’t even attempted to stop.  When the officer arrived, he did the same spot check for offending debris and came up empty as well.  And he concurred with the 40 miles per hour estimate.  Of course he postulated, as we all had, that it was most likely a drunk driver.  The problem was, even if they caught him and his car matched the damage here, there was no way to get a conviction to stick, simply because no one saw it happen.  The phantom struck, and vanished without a trace. 

It took us a while to settle back down.  I whispered to Mom that she missed all the action, but I figured she and Hedi Kunz would be comparing notes in a few hours anyway.  Just as they had done so often while sitting on their front porches over the years, presiding over all that happened in Gulf Village. 

Romans 12:12 says, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

Father, help Cheryl to work out the details of dealing with her wrecked car.  And walk with her as she deals with the details of the struggles in her life.  Give her hope and bring her to joy.  Amen.