Memories of Daddy, Post 19: For Daddy, FAR More Than A Car Nearly Came Crashing Down.
Updated: Sep 22, 2020
I started to rewrite the story that I was trying to type before I became emotional during Post #17, but it changed again after speaking to my mom today. I'll eventually get to the humorous portion of it, but I want to focus on a more important part first.
In high school, I got into a car accident 3 weeks before my 16th birthday.
Now, as you can tell by my age, I must have had my learner's permit, and therefore, there must have been an adult with me who was enraged... but instead I was by myself when this occurred so badness on multiple fronts.
I had asked my brother to drive me to the store because I was running for the sophomore class Treasurer (my slogan was "Manoj NOSE what to do!"... yes, it was lame). But he was "busy" watching TV so he told me to go by myself since it was a strip mall right next to where we lived (in hindsight, he felt guilty about this for many years).
I initially went to one store but had to cross a 4-lane street to get to the strip mall across the street. I looked one way, then the other way, then the other way before crossing... but just as I looked the other way, a 12-person conversion van had just turned onto the road. So as I crossed, that van crashed into my brother's silver Sunfire that I was driving.
It was very surreal.
The window cracked and then the car crushed around me. Literally. I came out with a scratch on my arm, but the car was destroyed and I probably should have been killed (I am a cat).
When the cops came, I was bawling and they called my brother. When he found out, he got ahold of my parents who were at the temple, and they immediately came to the site. When Mummy saw the car, she started crying, and I saw it. They then saw me sitting with an officer, crying. Daddy didn't say much to me at the time.
But I just remember Daddy being very calm during this entire ordeal.
When I spoke to Mummy today, she said you haven't posted yet about the car accident you had in high school. And I told her I was planning on it. I then told her that I was gonna mention a funny aspect about it before I posted #17.
She said you should talk about how Daddy started panicking and was asking
"Where is Manoj???? WHERE IS MANOJ???"
But, honestly, I never knew that aspect of the story.
I never knew he panicked upon seeing the car. That he panicked about potentially losing his son.
The most amazing part of this process that I'm going through right now is I'm learning more and more that I didn't even realize the entire extent of how much Daddy loved me.