Shea likes to drive himself to church service so he can hang out with his teenage friends and this day was no exception. He really isn’t too bad of a driver for just being 18, but he does have ADHD, dyslexia, and those raging hormones that are common in a teenage boy. Honestly, I was a little surprised that our church didn’t cancel morning services.

You may have heard about our recent winter storms here in Michigan. The snow covering the roads and trees is truly lovely, until you have to drive through it. With temperatures hovering around 0 degrees Fahrenheit the salt doesn’t have much of a chance of clearing the roads. Yesterday, we had “white outs” throughout the day. The snow blows and drifts across the roads, narrowing the driving path, and periodically reducing visibility to a few inches. Last year, Shea rolled his pickup truck several times when he was bringing his sister home from piano lessons that are also held at our church. His father had warned him about keeping his tires properly inflated, but that advice went in one ear and out the other. The only injuries noted during that crash were a couple of scratches on fingers.

After church, Shea decided to run to the store. It was sort of on his way home. I am not sure why he attempted to come home by the route he took, since it isn’t the most direct route from the store. Parents of teenagers never know everything about their business.

This is the third call I have received from a teenager that went something like this. “Mom, I just totaled my car.” Two of those calls have come from Shea. This one was a head-on collision. The road was narrowed to one lane by the snowdrifts. The wind was blowing the snow wildly about and Shea said that he saw the headlights of the other car a second before they collided.

“Guess I didn’t need those new headlights that I bought yesterday, after all,” he said with a grin. I didn’t have much to say after seeing the car, he was lucky to be alive. Lane starts driver’s training next Monday and then we will only have six more children to teach how to drive.

Photos by Julia Fuller 2008