Yesterday evening on my way home from work, I came upon an opportunity to do the right thing and failed. Failed miserably.
There’s road construction on the street where I work and it’s heavily traveled, particularly during rush hour. For whatever reason, a 12 year old on his bicycle was riding on this road that doesn’t yet have sidewalks. A young man in his 20’s struck the 12 year old and witnesses say the boy was thrown far in the air, ultimately landing directly in the middle of the road. And that’s where I saw him. The accident probably happened about 2 minutes before my car came across a minor slowdown that didn’t even seem unusual to me until I saw a bike on the north side of the road, just lying there, and I knew. The next thing I saw was a vehicle in the middle of the road, unoccupied, that had a damaged windshield and before I could process what was happening, there was the 12 year old boy just feet from my passing car, motionless. Mitchell was his name, I now know, and he was alone.
There was all of this chaos going on as people were making frantic phone calls and trying to slow traffic but Mitchell was alone, with his back toward me. As long as I live, I don’t think I’ll ever forget his gray sweatshirt and jeans and the way he was kind of lying on his side, like maybe he was just too scared to move. I couldn’t see his face and that’s probably a blessing.
My breath was taken away but I followed the herd of traffic to the red light, probably a half mile down the road. It was there that I realized what had happened and I immediately texted a friend and my husband. I texted that the boy was alone ~ no one was with him. That’s where I failed. I missed what I could have, should have done. I should have parked my car, gone to him, and held his hand. I should have prayed with him; for him. As a mom, how could I have let someone’s son just be alone on that road?
Today I found out that Mitchell had passed away immediately from the impact of the accident. I don’t even know how that makes me feel… kind of “off the hook” because I couldn’t have comforted him after all? I’m left disappointed in myself.
Please pray for the young man whose car struck Mitchell ~ he was coming home from a church event or meeting and was grief stricken when this happened. Please pray for this 12 year old boy and his family.
By Amy
Wife.Mom.Christian.Blogger.....and that's really just the beginning. :-)