Life In The Middle

Unexpected Turns In Life Lead You Into Uncharted Waters

I began driving when I was sixteen years old. By the time you get to my age ( well over fifty) you consider yourself an "expert" driver. I have driven in snow, rain, wind, on ice, and been involved in a few fender benders along the way. It is the unexpected events that remind you anything can happen in life, and suddenly things can change. One moment your life is going one way, and the next you find yourself on a completely different road. Let me give you an example of this.

I work at the university hospital in Portland, Oregon. Sam Jackson Drive winds up the hill, and has, what the employees call, five 'Deadman" curves. By that I mean narrow curves without guardrails. There is a steep drop down twenty to thirty feet, if you go off the road.

About three weeks ago I was coming home, after working one of those twelve hour night shifts from hell. The type of night that makes you realize that you used every ounce of your knowledge and training as a nurse to keep your patient alive.

Just before I turned onto Sam Jackson and started my journey down the hill, a small yellow check engine light appeared on my dashboard. I thought I would have to tell my husband about it when I got home. I took the first curve and was approaching the second one. I noticed that I was going faster and needed to slow down. I put on the brakes and my foot went to the floor. It was then that I realized my brakes were not working. More lights appeared on my dashboard. The check engine became an engine light, and the air bag and battery lights were on too. My engine had turned itself off and now I had no power steering nor power brakes. An engine turning off for legitimate reasons may be a nice safety feature when you're on a straight road; but when you suddenly don't have power steering and brakes, you're driving downhill, and approaching a "Deadman's Curve" , you definitely want to have both of these. I pulled as hard as I could to the left and the car made the second curve. I crossed into the oncoming lane (luckily there wasn't a car coming at that time) and hit the hill and stopped. The rear end of my car was sticking out into the road.

I sat there with my heart pounding in my chest, my eyes as big as saucers, and my mouth as dry as the Mojave Desert. In that moment I realized all my years of experience, all my knowledge as an intensive care nurse had been useless. If I had not been able to turn my car, I would have driven off that curve and been involved in a serious accident. Instead that hard turn had been enough to allow me to cross into the other lane and into the hillside.

I called my husband, and he called the tow truck. By eleven in the morning I had arrived at the Toyota dealership, and was about an hour away from finally getting to bed. The service center said a defect in the computer system had disabled the brake system, and then the engine had been turned off for safety reasons. Nice. A new computer was put in the car.

As I said at the beginning of this article, it only takes a moment, one decision, one action that starts you on a path which can impact your entire life. An individual begins skating at three, and spends the next fifteen years to become an Olympian. Then he slips on a wet step and falls down a flight of stairs. The rest of his life is spent in a wheel chair, dependent upon others to perform various tasks for him. Now what? You're never going to be what you expected to be, ever.

The question is this. When life serves you lemons, are you the type of person who can make lemonade? Instead of turning into a bitter, mean spirited individual, can you rise above the experience and put yourself into life? If you don't change the way you approach the problem, you will never turn the juice of your lemons into lemonade.

The moment I realized my brakes were out, and the engine was off, leaving me without any power steering, I knew that this incident was going to change my life forever. For me, I averted the horrible consequences of the trip over "Dead Man's Curve", this time. But I know that one day life will send something my way, that I can't evade. It will be my time to be upon uncharted waters. My hope is that I will respond with courage and dignity. In the mean time, I intend to soak every drop of life and meaning from the things that I experience in my daily life. I hope this article reminds you that life is only here for a short time, so use it well. Just something to think about. Until later... Colleen

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Copyright 2010 Leland Pulley