At some point, statisticians will tally the number of people injured in 2011 in automobile accidents caused by distracted drivers. When they do, I will be someone they count. But I am more than a statistic: I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a friend. And on December 2, 2011, because of a distracted driver, I almost became a traffic fatality.

For two days after the accident, the only people who knew what had happened were my husband and children. Then, because I could not face making multiple phone calls, I sent an email to my family and a few close friends. Here is part of the text of that email: Continue reading →

I often joke that one benefit of living in the Delaware Valley is that we’re relatively protected from natural disasters. We’ve been buried by blizzards, whipped by hurricanes, have even felt the ground barely tremble beneath our feet during a rare earthquake, but mostly Mother Nature unleashes her big guns elsewhere.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because of two recent events: the wildfires in Arizona and New Mexico and the floods in the Midwest. Both disasters prompted widespread evacuations, and as I watched the television images of people preparing to leave their homes — leading horses onto trailers and cramming furniture into pick-up trucks — I began to wonder: if I found myself in the same situation, what would I do? Continue reading →

I’m a “music mom.”

By my count, over the years I have watched my children perform in more than 14 school musicals, 52 school concerts, and four years worth of band cavalcades and marching band half-time shows. Add to that years of semi-annual voice, piano, and cello recitals and you’ll understand why I say I feel as if I’ve spent a quarter of my life sitting on unforgiving auditorium seats. Continue reading →