Jack ‘n Tracie

NOTHING! That’s right. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. I commented to Jack today that it feels very weird to have a weekend where nothing is planned. There’s no getting ready for a trip. No getting the kids ready for a trip. No getting ready for a party. No getting ready for house guests or birthdays or… anything. We have a big fat Nothing on our plates. A weekend all to ourselves to do whatever we want.

I also commented that it was odd because usually we have some big ‘thing’ coming up that we’re gearing up for. And our weekend plans have been determined by these ‘things’ for what seems like forever. It’s quite nice to just have a big nothing planned.

Switching gears a bit. There was more drama at Cody’s school yesterday.

This time it wasn’t a stray dog. Instead it was a woman in pain. I noticed her sitting on the ground back against the wall talking on a cell phone outside the gym at the school while waiting for the bus to arrive, and thought nothing of it. Cody’s bus arrived 10 minutes late and we hopped into the car to head back home. I glanced over at the woman and she was standing now but clutching her stomach, still talking on the cell phone. She put her hand against the wall to steady herself, then suddenly she flipped around, back to the wall and collapsed at the knees to where she fell pretty hard onto her tush. Her daughter tried to grab her and started screaming and crying. I stopped the car and jumped out to help her at the same time another mom who witnessed this did the same. We both got to her at the same time and both started bombarding her with questions: Are you ok? Do you need an ambulance? What is wrong?

The other mom and I backed off when we realized we were hounding her with these questions in our concern. The woman in pain did not speak good English. She was crying and talking into her cell phone quietly while the daughter continued to cry and try to pull her up. We asked the daughter if her mom was OK and if we needed to call 911. All the daughter could tell us with a heavy accent was, “She can’t even walk!”. The woman said nothing to us but, “No”. The other mom put her hand on the woman’s shoulder and gently asked her what we could do to help her. We could call an ambulance or we could give her a ride somewhere. The woman in pain kept shaking her head saying, “No!”. She seemed angry that we were there. The other mom told her we were here to help and make sure she was OK. She offered again to call 911 or give her a ride, asking if she needed to go to the hospital. The woman pointed to a red van parked several feet away (on the other side of the barrier at the end of the dead end road the school is on). We asked the daughter if that was their vehicle. She said it was.

The woman kept talking quietly in another language into her cell phone. We asked the daughter if she was talking to someone who could help. The daughter didn’t know. So me and the other mom backed up a bit and wondered what to do. The woman was clearly distraught and in a lot of pain. But she did not want our help at all. The daughter calmed down a bit and helped her mom up and they slowly started making their way to their van. The mom and I decided to stay and make sure she got to her van OK, but we were both worried about her driving. I asked the daughter if they lived close and she said yes.

It was a very odd experience. The other mom and I both felt weird to just stand there and watch as this woman and her daughter limped off to get into her car. Part of me wanted to stop her and tell her she could not drive in her current condition, especially with kids in the car, but another part of me wanted to respect her wishes to butt out of whatever was going on. She made it quiet clear she didn’t want our help. The other mom felt the same.

We decided since she had a cell phone and lived close, that she *should* be OK. Especially since the daughter seemed to have some idea of what was going on but didn’t want to, or wasn’t supposed to tell us. We watched them get into their car and drive off. The other mom and I pondered what could have been wrong. Appendicitis? Pregnancy with early contractions? Maybe she wasn’t hurt at all and just got some very bad news on the cell phone? We’ll never know I supposed. I’ll be looking for her again today at the school. I hope she’s alright.