Summer Madness

When did you last time you hear something that made your heart stop?

A few years ago I began to dread the beginning of summer for one reason only: It seemed to me that as my young teenage son was growing up we would experience a moment of summer madness.

This particular phone call did it for me, gave me that heart stopping moment:

‘Mum, I’m being stretchered in… the car hit the house…oh okay mate… ambulance man says I’ve gotta go. Bye.’

My heart skipped a few beats… as I sat bolt upright in bed, it was 4am!

Now what do I do? I know he’s alive. I heard him speak. He can’t drive so he was a passenger, who else is with him, how did the car hit the house? It’s four in the morning and I have no idea where he’s going… which hospital?

It’s at moments like these that you could cheerfully scream at your off-spring: 'What were you thinking?' But I digress.

Youngsters are carefree and fervently you pray that they make it to adulthood, that far at least, without major injury, trauma or damage.

Naturally I got out of bed, went down to make a pot of tea and waited. Then I made a few phone calls to established where he was going. Once I knew I had a shower and I was ready leave, despite the early hour.

Arriving at the A&E department I was surprised how many of his friends had been involved one way or another.

There had been five of them in the car and none of them wore seat belts… they were lucky to be alive, considering how heavily they had piled in on top of each other on impact! To hamper the ambulance crew and nursing staff the five occupants of the car had been paddling in the sea (prior to accident) and none of them wore shoes.

They hobbled out of hospital later that day their feet covered in scrapes and bruises, just scrapes and bruises. And for that I will always be truly grateful.