The other day my mom headed out to get her mail.  What she didn’t know is just how exciting things were going to get when she least expected it.   She has three children and due to the fact that none of us want to see anything bad happen, we are constantly reminding her to be careful.  She likes to be as independent as she can possibly be and part of that involves going out to get her mail.  Sometimes there will be an icy build up near her mailbox in the winter so she keeps a bag of ice melt in the front seat of her car and when needed, she sprinkles the ice before getting out to get the mail.  The other day she drove past the box a bit closer than usual, opened the door, got out, got the mail and then once back in the driver’s seat, she shifted the car into reverse instead of drive, hit the accelerator and caught the door on the mail box stand.  She was so terribly upset when this happened she wasn’t quite sure what to do.  She drove ahead and found out the door wouldn’t shut so she drove into the yard with the door open wide.  She got out of the car and went inside to call my sister.  My sister did her best to calm mom’s frazzled nerves but she was still upset.  She called me a bit later and I could tell the frazzled nerves were still in intensive care so I did my best to calm her down, reassuring her that it would get fixed and that we all make mistakes.  I realize this was very upsetting but listening to her account of what transpired will put a smile on my face that will resurface for years to come.  She said, “Bev, do accelerators make the car go faster in reverse than when they’re in drive?  I told her I wasn’t really sure and then I asked why.  She replied, “Everything happened so fast but I do remember this, when I put my foot on that %$#& gas pedal,  the car took off backwards like a rocket!”

Perhaps I have an incredibly warped sense of humor.  I was very thankful she was not injured and that the damage will not require extensive repairs.  During the phone call I was reassuring my sweet mother that this type of thing happens to a lot of people.  On the inside, however, I was watching the mental video that formed in my brain as she was asking me questions about the rocket she had just driven into the yard with the door ajar, and I was laughing like a hyena.