Originally posted by: moshquerade
losing my father
OP, the worst feeling in the world is so beyond having to retype an email
I'm sorry, mosh. I haven't felt that one yet.
when my daughter was 3, we went out for a walk in the night to look at the christmas lights in the neighborhood. we lived in a townhouse community.. we walked around a while, stopped in to a community meeting to vote on something or other, walked around a bit more and headed home.. my husband had the baby in a backpack on his back and I had my daughter's hand and we're walking along and all of a sudden she was gone. just.. gone.
between the time we left the house and the time we headed back, someone had taken the cover off the storm drain in the sidewalk and she just stepped right in the hole and fell in.. I was holding her hand but we were walking on a sidewalk and I was on the street side, I didn't have a death grip on it, she just.. fell right on in. she was there, and then she wasn't. it was dark. I had learned everything I knew about storm drains earlier that day when I started reading stephen king's "it". all I knew about storm drains was they were full of rapid rushing water and clowns that eat small children.
so my husband took the backpack off his back and thrust it and the baby at me and disappeared into the hole after the toddler so there were 2 of the 3 people I love best in a dark hole full of fast running water and clowns that eat small children and neither one of them could swim!
that was probably the worst feeling I ever had... I was sure there was deep water down there sweeping them out to sea... or something, I dunno, it was nightmare stuff, I was scared to death! I ran home and grabbed the phone and called 911 and said "my kid fell into a HOLE!" and of course the baby was there in the backpack still cryin' because I'd run home clutching the thing and the 911 lady said "is that the kid crying?" and I said no, that's the BABY, my KID fell in the hole! rofl.. it was funny before the night was out.. after I got rid of the 911 lady I wrestled the baby out of the backpack and opened the fridge and stood there looking for a flashlight, then I smacked myself and went and got it out of the cabinet and headed back to the hole.. I may not be perfect under pressure but after a few false starts I get the job done..
passed the husband and kid on the way back to the hole, there wasn't any water in it, just lots of leaves, she was fine, just scratched her little finger, but I had to go back to the hole because I'd called out the national guard, someone needed to be there to meet them. police came, ambulance came, fire truck came, they found a football in the storm drain and figure kids probably lost it and somehow got the lid off but didn't get the football.. ambulance guys put a bandaid on the pinky finger, the kid (she's 21 now) doesn't remember much about the night but she does remember the ambulance guy putting a bandaid on her finger.. the lid got put on.. life goes on..
but that's the worst feeling I ever had, when my husband and kid were down in that hole drowning and being eaten by that nasty clown, because I'd dropped my child in a storm drain.
anno