La Vita è Bella

Not many other cars filled the road as my sister and I started our trip together. It was a blue car that one of us had recently bought. We were having fun talking, listening to music, just being together and enjoying the ride.

The weather was not foggy or rainy but, all of a sudden we came upon cars- a 15 car pile-up in front of us. I applied the break, but it wasn't in time. We crashed into the cars, all of us forming a train of mangled vehicles.

The next thing I remember is calling for my sister: asking if she was okay. When I didn't get a response I looked over to the passenger seat only to find that she wasn't there.

My hands shaking with nerves, I opened my door as fast as I could and frantically tried to find her. I ran around the car and found her wedged under the right front tire. She looked up at me, her eyes filled with tears, pleading for me to help her. I cried as I tried to lift the car and move her. All to no avail. The car wouldn't budge.

EMTs and policemen were swarming the scene. I yelled at them to come help my sister. Several came over, took a look at her, and said there were other people in more urgent need of help than her. I yelled at the policeman: that is my sister under the car. Help her!

I tried to comfort her and told her to hold on....

Telling me that I needed to get away from the scene of the accident, a policeman escorted me into a warehouse type building. We went down a long, darkly lit hallway with wooden planks on the floor. We then came to a table surrounded by boxes, with one light bulb over it, hanging by a single cord. He instructed me to wait there and said somebody would come get me when it was all over.

Crying and alone, I sat down. I thought of my sister under the car and realized there was no way for me to help her. But there was somebody who could. And so I prayed that He would help her, that she would be okay, that she knew I loved her.

Something woke me from my nightmarish sleep- my palms sweaty, my heart racing, and tears soaking my pillow. I looked at the alarm clock by my bed. It read 2:30am. As soon as I could, I called my sister. Hey, how are you? came the voice on the other end of the phone. My sister was alive. She was alive!

So many things in life are subject to a single mis-step. One wrong turn of the car's steering wheel, one thought that came a second too late, one action that can change somebody's life for good or bad. Yet, we are optimists and continue to drive and think and act. We wouldn't have it any other way.

And so, today, I encourage you to tell those people that you love, that you love them. Thank that friend for always being there for you. Be kinder to those you meet. Encourage others on your way.

For as we know, life is fragile but life is also beautiful.

Copyright © 2010 by Natasha M.