Old Advice

Ever since the first car accident back in the early 1900’s mothers have given their children some good advice: Make sure you put on clean underwear before you go anywhere just in case you are in an accident. Of course, there are plenty of other good reasons for wearing clean underwear, but somehow that one always seemed paramount for moms.

Several years ago a dear friend of mine was in a terrible roll over accident. It was truly a miracle she survived after having been thrown through the sun roof as the car was flipping over.  The paramedics had to cut her clothes off to attend to her injuries. She’s a meticulous person, so she had nothing to worry about regarding cleanliness. However, she tended toward the more luxurious things in life as treats every now and then and since this was to have been a special trip, she was wearing the special dainties she bought as a gift to herself. Needless to say, her very expensive, lacy dainties ended up in the emergency room trash barrel along with her designer jeans and cashmere sweater.

Life is full of twists and turns and surprises of one sort or another. My friend and everyone who loves her feels blessed that she made it through that terrible accident.  We still talk about it occasionally when we are counting our blessings and reviewing how fortunate we’ve been in this life. We’ve both lived long enough to have grown old. Now that she is on a fixed income she doesn’t indulge in the expensive treats to herself so much anymore. And when she travels, everything she wears is clean but not expensive. You know…just in case!