I was eating lunch in the breakroom that day when Bubba called me from Hornbeak. "Daddy's had a wreck and I can't get there. Will you go check it out?" Off in a flash, I headed toward the highway crossover that had been the scene of many more accidents, two with my mom and one with a teenaged BG. When I got to the scene, Daddy was in his truck, minus the bumper and stuff getting ready to cross back over. I eased up next to him and asked him where he was going. " To pick your mom up at the beauty shop" was his reply. The cop was over on the road to our houses, talking to the other driver. She turned out to be real shady, by the way. Had a TV type lawyer call them later. Daddy told Bubba he had been in a hit and run. He didn't warn him that HE was the runner!

I convinced him to head toward home and let me pick mom up. As he pointed the banged up truck westward, I tried to get a word with the cop. "I've gotta catch him!" he said. So he cut him off in the parking lot of the car shop and read him the riot act about improper registration and leaving the scene and whatnot. Dude looked kinda like Billy Bob Thornton, only without the sex appeal. As fate would have it, daddy's doc was with Bubba and he found out about the whole deal. Two letters to the state resulted in his license being pulled and we all breathed a sigh of relief. It's a long story, but he had been hittin' things for awhile.

That's when we became a village, of sorts. Since neither of them can drive, Bubba and BG and me are their personal shoppers/daily visitors/taxis. As a family, we have grown because of this with bonds being forged that will never be broken because we've been on this journey together. T and the grandboy are far away, and that makes mom sad sometimes. That and being in the house all day with an ornery OCD dementia patient. We're adapting our routines now to blend with his so that he doesn't get mad and break the recliner again. Hey...sometimes you gotta laugh :) Cousin Deb's husband Ronnie and he get along really well so they're going to ride the farm this Saturday while we celebrate mom's birthday, all girlified. Gaga's china will do real nice, I think.

^j^