Wreck

It’s 5 a.m. and I just got home from a 3p.-3a. Emergency Room social worker shift, during which I dealt with two families whose lives have been forever altered by a bad wreck on the Athens 10 loop.

According to the police, “the vehicle flipped multiple times.” One person was instantly killed, the other was transported to the ER badly injured. There was a baby car seat with some blood on it in the vehicle, but no sign of a baby in the seat or on the scene. Later we found out the baby was with a relative – nowhere near the vehicle when his mother died, in that unfortunate, terrible wreck tonight…

Horrible, horrible stuff – telling the deceased woman’s family she had died, then telling the surviving patient’s family the neurologist “has yet to determine the possible extent of the damage done by the head injuries sustained in the accident,”…Lots of people, lots of tears, lots of inconceivably awful emotions and phone calls and physical reactions there in the ER amongst those folks on this night…

I cried for both of the families I dealt with tonight, as I drove home from work on those eerie deserted 4 a.m. roads, in that weird 4 a.m. fog and non-light…One family is now dealing with an unimaginable loss. The other is gathered in an ICU waiting room trying to cope with “neurological complications as yet undetermined” and other severe injuries…

As I pulled safely into my driveway, I wondered why it’s okay for us all to have our heads so far up our behinds. There is stuff that really matters in this life, and there is stuff that does not, but must be dealt with anyway…
Flash forward to another part of my life – Barrow Journal columnist/writer. This week’s paper came out today, and partly as a way to fall asleep, and partly as a way to keep current, when I got into bed, I opened up this week’s issue…

A big drug bust by the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies - 41 arrested, 59 warrants still pending – excellent work! Drugs are a terrible problem and a personal curse on all those who can’t escape their grip…

There was the verbage back and forth about the county CFO personnel board hearing…maybe the CFO did something wrong – maybe she didn’t…It’s not clear by anything the board of commissioners or personnel review board said…But, then, why do we care? She’s only the person in charge of the county’s finances during a time of major economic crisis for our county…

And, there’s the he said/she said amongst The Barrow Journal bloggers about what’s going on in local politics…I’m sorry, but an opinion worth reading amongst all those anonymous blogger comments is rare…so negative, mean spirited and ill spoken, so many of those comments are…

Barrow County’s CFO needs to simply tell the board what’s happening with the budget, stop generating controversy and earn her keep…Barrow County’s Personnel Review Board needs to do its’ job, which is to decide if employees are unfairly punished, and if so, rectify the situation with something more substantial than double-speak…

Barrow County’s chairman needs to stop, think and breathe a lot more often before he issues yet another poorly thought-out edict or another rashly uttered statement…

And, we all need to get back in touch with what really matters, which is that if we have a few folks who love us and we are still blessed with good health and a little bit of wealth, and are not dealing with a death in the family – then, we are okay.

As I have written about frequently during the past few months, my husband’s unemployment continues and my middle-class lifestyle is crumbling right before my eyes. But, no one is sick, no one has died, and, I am still surrounded by those whom I most love…for that, I remain profoundly thankful.

Challenges, whether they be personal or political, are simply challenges. They are not life altering events like that really bad wreck on the Athens 10 loop tonight…