Stucky Meets a Mexican Woman, a Black Woman, And Six Cops

This crap never stops. There’s hardly ever a dull day in the Stucky household.

My mom called yesterday at 9AM … not a good sign since I was just there the day before, and she never calls in the morning. All I got from her hysterics was that dad had a car accident and is in some hospital. I hang up the phone, and thirty seconds later we’re out the door and on our way to the house. There are six cops there. Here’s what we were able to guess happened;

My dad went out to get the morning paper, go home, and pulled backwards into the driveway, when suddenly both his legs went COMPLETELY numb. He doesn’t realize his foot is on the accelerator. We believe, based on past incidences that his blood pressure dropped precipitously. The garage door was open. He smashed into the near-mint condition 1973 Mercedes 280 I bought him about 15 years ago, causing significant damage to the entire rear end.

As a side note, it is the only remaining “thing” both my dad and I love and cherish. I bought it from a doctor’s wife, and we are the second owners. It only has about 125k miles on it. It has “antique” plates which means he can only drive it 2,000 miles a year … and it does not have collision insurance. It was truly a head-turner. Every time dad took the car out for a grocery run or gas people would stop, look, and comment. I doubt he’ll want to spend a few thousands of dollars out-of-pocket to fix it. Such a sad thing to see it all crunched up, really. I suppose it’s God’s way of telling us … don’t be attached to anything this world has to offer, it is ALL fleeting and will turn to dust … or, rust.

So, dad panics. It puts the Toyota Camry into drive …. not realizing that his numb foot has the accelerator floored. We know this because a neighbor across the street and one house over was outside at the time. She heard the clunking of gears and the acceleration. Even though he can’t move his feet, dad is confused and dazed, and does not have the presence of mind to throw the car into “park” or turn off the ignition.

So, he accelerated full speed down the driveway, bottoms out at the dip, bounces across the street, hits the curb, flies airborne through the neighbor’s fence, snaps about a six-inch diameter tree literally in half, obliterates a glass patio table, plows through a row of hedges, smashes through the other side of the fence, and hits the corner of the other neighbor’s house before coming to a stop. Dad’s nose and mouth hit the steering wheel, his head hit the windshield, separating it from the roof. There’s a lot of blood everywhere.

The neighbor seeing this calls 911, and police and ambulance are there in about two or three minutes. When I arrive the car is already towed, and the ambulance took dad to the hospital.

Now, to the people …

 The black woman. She’s the neighbor who saw the whole thing and called 911. She’s lived there for about ten years and we never met her, or even waved to her. We don’t like any of our “those” neighbors across the street. When my parents bought the house in 1966 there was about 8 acres of forest “across the street”. In fact, when the realtor showed them the house, we saw several deer feeding. That clinched the deal. Then the owner of that land died, left it to his daughter, she sold it to a developer, and about a decade ago they erected eleven McMansions … destroying our little “Wild Kingdom” in the heart of industrial central New Jersey. So, we hated our neighbors. It seems logical.

As I walk up the driveway I see this black woman with her arms around my mother – who is still in a semi-state of hysteria. I can hear her saying “It’ll be OK dear. It’ll be OK.”, over and over. As I approach her she says, “I’m sorry we have to meet this way, but don’t you worry. When you’re not here I’ll come check up on your mother. I just gave her my phone number. Anything she needs, she can call us anytime. Don’t you worry.”. And then she gave me her number also. And then she hugged me, and told me not to worry. And I fought back my tears as hard as I could, but I couldn’t.

The Mexican woman. It was her property my dad plowed through. We don’t like them either. That’s because her husband owns a landscaping business. Their house is on the corner. And he parks his huge truck and trailer not in front of his house, but on the side of house … right in front of our picture window. So, we hate him. It seems logical. They have three children who play in their large yard all the time. What a massive tragedy it would have been had they been in the yard at the time! I can’t imagine how incensed they must be. Except … they were not. I walk into the yard to survey the damage. The lady comes out. I immediately walk over to her and profusely apologize. She would hear none of it. “No need to apologize. These are just things. They can easily be replaced. I said a prayer to God and thanked Him that our children were inside this morning. And I say a prayer that your father is OK. No, please do not apologize. Please let us know how your father is. OK?”

The cops. First, I suspect that they could have given my dad some kind of citation, but they didn’t. They were exceedingly polite. They did what they could to try to console my mom. They told me if there was anything I needed, or if there was any way they could help, to not hesitate to call. One cop asked me if I needed phone numbers and contacts regarding any social services for mom.

So, around 8PM we’re back home from the hospital, and I hear a knock on the door. It’s that cop. He says, “I’m sorry to bother you folks at this hour. I just got off duty and since your mom was so upset I thought I’d just check up on her. I didn’t know you’d be here. I hope I didn’t disturb you.” I invited him in. We talked for about ten minutes. He said that he and the other officers dubbed my dad “The Miracle Man”. He said he’s seen far less serious accidents where the driver wasn’t killed, or severely injured …. especially considering my dad’s age. So, as he left, he thanked ME, and reached out to shake my hand, and again said, “Don’t forget to call us if you need us.” I closed the door in utter astonishment.

I went to the hospital …. the very same hospital where they took mom after her fall down the stairs just last year … but this time it was dad who was all bruised and banged up, looking so sad and forlorn. The first thing he asked me was, “Why am I here? What happened?”. The nurse told us this short-term memory loss is a common thing, and not to worry. Well, they took x-rays and brain-scans. “Your father is an extremely lucky man. Other than his facial and head cuts (all superficial) he’s just fine. You can take him home in a couple of hours.” Holy crap.

I can only conclude that it’s hard to kill old Austrians, male or female.

A black woman, a Mexican woman, and six cops. I wonder if they all would have been this nice if they read some of the shit I have posted here. Probably. Not everyone is as full of hate as I am.

Placing these people in my life ….. I think God has a wicked sense of humor.

Hey … El Coyote …. peace to you, my friend. I’m sorry for being an asshole.

Author: Stucky

I'm right, you're wrong. Deal with it. View all posts by Stucky