Bad Parking Mojo

We had another death in the family recently, in addition to my grandmother's. Tab's Aunt Edna died of a heart attack late Monday night. I went to the viewing for a few minutes last night while Tab stayed with the kids, and then he went. This morning he went to the funeral and was once again a pallbearer.

Aunt Edna had a hard life. For the fifty-six years of their marriage, she waited hand and foot on Uncle Walt, a petty tyrant of a man. They had one child, a daughter named Carol, who contracted MS when she was in her 30s. Aunt Edna helped care for Carol until her death about ten years ago. Then Uncle Walt's health failed, and he became housebound and confined to a wheelchair. For years everyone in the family has been predicting Uncle Walt's imminent demise, yet he has confounded all expectations and kept right on living. He always was an obstinate, contrary man. Aunt Edna took care of him, though her own health was not good, right up to the end. And now Walt has survived her.

"Aunt Edna was just plain tired," commented Tab's cousin Lorraine. "She needed a rest.

We had wild weather last night, lots of thunder bolts and lightning pyrotechnics. Even with my eyes closed, I could see the lightning flashes against my eyelids as I fell asleep.

I awoke some time later, conscious of a different kind of light in the room, a blinking red light reflecting off our bedroom walls. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was shortly after 3 a.m. The window shade was up, and Tab was gone from the room. I looked out the front window to the street below and saw a huge tow truck with its flashers on, two police cars, and several police officers standing around and talking to spectators. I recognized Tab down there as well as some of our neighbors.

I put on my robe and went to the door. A small blue car I didn't recognize was being hoisted slowly up onto the back of the tow truck and then hauled away. Another car, one I knew belonged to Anna, a neighbor from down the street, had evidently been hit by the blue car. The back end of Anna's car was badly crushed, and it had been pushed up partly onto the curb.

Anna and her son Chris were among the onlookers. "Are they going to tow my car, too?" Anna asked Chris.

"Keep it right there for now," one of the police officers advised. "The insurance adjuster will want to see it."

Tab came in and told me what had happened. Anna's parked car had been hit by a drunk driver. Before the accident, a Good Samaritan in a Jeep had noticed a woman driving erratically, and suspecting a potential problem, had followed her and witnessed the crash. The drunk woman had tried to flee the scene, but he prevented her from leaving and got one of the neighbors to call the police. She was arrested and taken away in handcuffs, Tab said. Tab was surprised I'd slept through most of the commotion.

There must be some bad mojo associated with that parking space. Three years ago in that very spot, our Honda was crushed by a tree that came down during a storm. Happily, our neighbors Byron and Samantha let us park in their driveway now, or else that could have been our minivan--our only vehicle now--that was totalled last night.

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