They say when something happens to your child you feel it worse than if it happened to you. I found that to be true last week.

My youngest daughter, Sydney, was driving home from school in  Buffalo last week.  After dropping her friends off in Westchester, she called me on the blue tooth in her car to tell me she would be home in about an hour and a half. As we were talking, I remember thinking, “maybe she shouldn’t be talking to me while on unfamiliar roads.” But I never verbalized it. As we were talking Sydney suddenly screamed, “Oh s##t!!!” And then I heard a huge BOOM. At my phone in my office I screamed her name.

Sydney had gotten hit by another car as she was trying to make a left turn. She looked left before she turned but, on an unfamiliar road, she did not realize that the bend in the road made oncoming traffic difficult to see. While, technically, she was at fault, it truly was an accident.

Physically, Sydney is fine. But it is difficult  to recount the level of fear I felt when I heard the crash through the phone.  Literally, my heart stopped. I have been in my own car accidents but this one feels worse than any I have been in.

It will take me a very long time to get the sound of that BOOM out of my head, if ever.