Girl on Bike, Woman in Red Car
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It’s a mystery. I hear Jack Webb’s
voice (Sargent Joe Friday) in my ear. “Just the facts, Ma’am. Just the facts.”
July 25, a sweltering sunny
afternoon, my granddaughter Antoinette, rode her bike down Kendrick, a side
street in Glendive, Montana.
At 3:30 her Mother sat in her
office, recording client notes into a file, waiting for her 4:00 appointment,
when her phone rang. “Mom, come get me. I wrecked my bike. I don’t know where I
am.” She was on a street she rode every day.
A woman, whose name we do not know,
took the phone and told Dee Dee that Antoinette was on the lawn of the church.
Meanwhile the woman who had picked
Antoinette off the street and helped her to the grass, laid the bike beside
her, waited for Dee, got into a red car and drove off. Thank you for stopping
and helping, whoever you are.
Dee’s office was five minutes away. She
rushed out of her office, leaving the door open. Dee helped Antoinette into her
van, stowed the wrecked bike in the back and drove straight to the hospital
Emergency Room.
At the hospital, Antoinette admitted
she remembered nothing. She rode along the street and then she was in the
street, down and hurting. Obviously she had a concussion. Her right arm was
broken, third broken arm. The flesh on her hand was skinned back. Road rash
covered her left leg knee, thigh and shoulder. Her right knee has either a
hairline fracture or severe bone bruise. And, she hurt all over.
It wasn’t until the family got home
and Chris, Antoinette’s Dad took the bike out of the car, that they realized
that the “accident” was not as simple as believed. Her brand new bicycle was
crumpled, the handlebars not just loosened but bent out of shape and the brake
line had ripped apart. The tires and seat were twisted. Antoinette’s bike
helmet has two holes in the top as well as a long scrape the length of the
helmet.
Those are the known facts. You tell
me what happened.
Antoinette is twelve years old.
She’s had mild cerebral palsy since birth. Luckily her disease is not severe. From birth she has had physical and
occupational therapy and she is encouraged to stay physically active. She
typically rides her bike a couple hours a day when weather allows.
It is a month later and Antoinette still has no memory of
what happened. She has intense headaches and still suffers high levels of pain.
Glendive is a small eastern Montana
town, population about 5500, just off the freeway. Everybody knows
everybody. They are good people, just
like our neighbors. Kendrick Street is not a main thoroughfare. Nobody reported
the accident.
Obviously Antoinette didn’t hit a
rock in the road and lay down her bike. Who hit my granddaughter? I have many
questions and no answers. We’ll probably never know.
I’ve un-intentionally laid my bike
down on the rutted gravel roads I rode around Harlem more than once back in the
day. Worst I ever suffered was skinned knees and gravel bits welded to my palm.
Something is really wrong in this story.
It’s a good thing Dee Dee is a
bike-helmet tyrant. (Dee said moms of CP kids tend to be tyrants.) If she weren’t, I might not have a
granddaughter.
I know it seems silly to our
generation. None of us ever wore a bike helmet. There was no such thing. But if
you don’t have one and can’t afford one, I might know somebody who’d get you
one.
Schools are back in session. Kids
are walking and biking, laughing and talking. It is up to us to be alert.
Please, please, please, watch out for our young ones.
Sondra
Ashton
HDN: Looking
out my back door
August 30,
2018
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