Circles

I know that there are these things going around on FaceBook and all over the place to identify the circles of life that seem to naturally crop up everywhere. I think they are called the 6 degrees of separation. I could be wrong. But hey, I'm under the influence of night time cold medicine..so give me a break!!
Anyway, recently I collided with one such circle of life that left an impression on me. A few weeks ago, as I was on my way home from work, I was passed by a police officer flying around the line of cars I was in to get to an accident. I had actually been delayed at work by a few minutes talking to Sherrie and Dr. M. I went to pick up Lyndi and was heading home, down the Jefferson Rd. exit. Just ahead of us was a tremendous wreck. Smoke was still pouring out of the air bags in the mini van that caused the accident. The driver of the car that was struck head on, headed West bound on the 10 loop was laying out in the median of the road. EMS personnel was working with this person on the ground....a woman. Then a woman who was obviously upset came running over to that person's side. Then the fire rescue workers were trying to get the passenger out of the minivan. I called Pete and told him that I was caught in traffic at this accident and that I thought there were probably fatalities in it. It was a mess! I then tried to reach my mom by phone to worn her in case she was on her way home too. I tried to call my friend Laurie to let her know in case she was near that exit...as that's the exit where her mom and dad live. I know she goes over to their house often.
The next day on the radio, I found out that the minivan was being driven by an elderly woman who had come off of the Jefferson Rd exit, crossed over the 10 loop and collided head on with a vehicle traveling West bound on the other side of the 10 loop median. It was hard to tell at a glance of the accident scene exactly how things went down. That next day though, there were plenty of orange flags and spray paint marking exactly where everything took place. The driver of the minivan died. A few days later, the day of the driver's funeral, her passenger husband died.
Not long after I had found out the details of the accident, I spoke to my friend Laurie and told her that I had tried to call her and advise her of the accident. I told her that I felt like, if I had been just a couple of minutes quicker heading home, that I could have been involved in that accident. She then told me that she too came up on the accident and described the scene almost exactly as I had seen it...she was right behind me, on the exit ramp off Jefferson!! I did not have her cell number so I couldn't let her know...but she did know! She saw it too!
Last week (now about 3 weeks after the accident), one of my patients came in and asked me (out of the blue) if I knew the people that died in the collision on the 10 loop. I thought that was odd seeing as I was a first hand witness of the aftermath of the accident and it made an impression on me. I described the accident scene to her. I told her what I had heard about the people involved in the accident. Then she told me that she knew the couple that had died as a result of the accident. She worked in a place of business that she saw the driver of the van weekly. She had know this woman for a number of years. She said that this woman was one of the nicest, kindest people she knew and that she would miss her. I thought about how odd I thought the whole situation was.
That accident that I had missed by minutes, the one that made a deep impression on me, the one I tried to warn my friend about, the one that took the lives of 2 people...and someone intimately knew the the riders in the van. How random...or was it random at all? Why did my patient decide to discuss this with me? Why was I a witness? Why did I miss being involved?
When Lyndi saw the cars all smashed up in the median, she asked me,"Mama, whata happeneded to those caaas? They fall down and brokeded?" I responded to Lyndi that indeed they fell down and broke and I didnt think that the people in the the cars were ok either. I think they fell down and broke too.
That couple evidently lived in Colbert...we were practically neighbors. I wonder if I will hear more about them in the future. I don't think that I had any connection with the other person involved in that accident. Who knows though, 10 years from now, I might have her as a patient. She may be sitting in my chair, while I'm working on her legs, telling me about how she was involved in a head on collision and survived...but the driver and passenger of the minivan didn't make it. Who knows really?