First time I ever heard Dennis say that.

It all happened like this....

We were at Sweet Tomatoes tonight just eating our dinner and minding our own business
when Fred came and sat by us.

He simply said, "I'm just going to sit right here. 
You don't have to talk to me, but I just want to feel your presence."

Turns out Fred was having a bad day. So we talked awhile about his life. 
He kept forgetting our names so Dennis wrote them on a napkin, 
and then we needed to be on our way.

We got in our car, pulled out of our spot and then suddenly a car was backing out slowly into us. 
Den kept honking the horn over and over to no avail. 
We couldn't believe the driver just would not stop, and ran into us. 
As this happened I actually heard Den say, "d***." 
I never thought I'd see the day.
No one is perfect, but he comes very close.

But here's the really good part. The older man who ran into us got right out of his car,
came up to us and said,  
"I was daydreaming and not paying attention 
to what I was doing. It's my fault. I'm so sorry." 

I so LOVE honest people. 

Dennis immediately said, "It's okay. These things happen."  
Of course he said that.
His car got it worse than ours.

You can barely tell where he hit us. Or maybe you can't tell at all.
He broke the metal strip and scraped some paint. 

Then we went to Costco and both of us started worrying about that man who hit our car. 
What is going on in his life that he was daydreaming so much 
that he didn't even pay attention to what he was doing?
 It could have been anything.
We will never know. 
But we are both so disappointed that we did not think to ask at the time!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of pain out there in the world. I go along in my own little bubble that's pretty nice most of the time, but sometimes I get surprising and disturbing glimpses of other people's less-than-nice worlds, and I experience a little of their pain vicariously. It hurts.
We need to do what we can to ease the pain of others that's so easy to ignore. You do that, Jill.
Thanks for being such a good samaritan.
Darlene

Grandma Honey said...

I WANT to be a good Samaritan, Darlene, but I often come up short on that goal. Especially now that I'm older I think of things too late...after the person in need has gone on their way. Then it haunts me that I should have done something!
But thank you for your continued faith in me. You are very empowering.

Rebecca said...

Oh sad! You never know what people are going through. I learned that this summer when I got hit! Glad you are all ok! And seriously....if that is the worst thing Dennis every says, I say he is doing pretty good!
(Trust me on this, I was just at the high school, and the language there...OH MY!)

Grandma Honey said...

I thought about you a lot yesterday Rebecca since you recently had a similar incident. That man who ran into you had just lost his wife right? I kept thinking the man yesterday might be going through something similar.

Rebecca said...

yes he did and I really felt badly for him. We left the accident on very kind terms. I even left my cell phone at the accident by mistake, and I had told them where John worked and they found my cell phone and took it to John!

Darlene said...

When a person is having problems, or even just a bad day, it is so helpful if one can just have someone to vent to. It sounds just like you are the kind of person one could go to. I'll bet you are a good friend to everybody you know. I really enjoyed reading this post because it tells me that you are the kind of person who can even be a good friend to a stranger. I'm not sure I could be that.

Karen Mortensen said...

What a day. At least there wasn't too much damage.

Unknown said...

I''m still laughing about dad!!!!!!!!!! ;) Glad to know he's human! Haha. You two are both so thoughtful to think of the other guy.

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