Monday, March 13, 2017

In Her Own Words

You probably recall the texting and driving posts (the initial story and the SAVE 2 SAVE ap) I shared few weeks back. As a final follow-up, I would like to share young Grace's version of the story. She wrote about and drew a picture of the day's events for a third grade language arts assignment, and graciously granted me permission to both read her story and then pass it along to you. (My clarifications are in parentheses.)

Weekend News, January 17, 2017

This weekend I went over to my friends house when a white car drived by. A few seconds later the car hit a mailbox two houses down from mine. Although no one was hurt there was some sirise (serious) damage to the mailbox. After I crossed the street safely I asked my friend if she wanted to check it out. She said yes but only with a grown up. We decided to go with my dad who was alridy on his way there. When we got there we look around. Bricks everywhere. We clind (cleaned) up a little bit. But then we saw the car. It was a kid that did that but it was her mom (who came to) talk to us about it. She helpt clean up the mess. We said (we) are good and she went.

"Me", "Hallie", and "what's left of the mailbox"
A couple of thoughts... First, the accident happened on a Friday afternoon, yet it stayed with Grace through the weekend and until Monday, when it dominated her thoughts enough to become the sole topic of her weekend news. And second, while she recognized two important details about the accident - the driver of the car was "a kid", and the damage to the mailbox was serious - Grace didn't recognize (or at least acknowledge in her writing) the other two important details: the driver of the car had been texting, and the serious damage could have been to her, rather than the mailbox.

I wasn't ready to go into great detail and/or use frightening specifics with Will and Hallie about what could have happened to Grace. But since that weekend I have talked - generally speaking - to them about the dangers of texting and driving almost every day, and I know Grace's mom has been talking to her kids as well. I continue to use SAFE 2 SAVE regularly (we cashed in a free Bahama Bucks shaved ice last week and can't wait to use a buy one get one free bundt cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes this weekend), and while the ap isn't a perfect solution, it has absolutely made a difference in our family.

Midway through writing this post last Thursday afternoon I took a break to run a quick errand. On my two-mile round trip I saw two people holding and looking at their phones while driving. This behavior is of course unsafe, but in our community it's also illegal. I have no idea what I can do to cure this epidemic other than to continue sharing my/others' experiences and publicize potential solutions that come across my radar, so that's what I'll do. If you have an experience or a potential solution I could share here on Chasing Roots, don't hesitate to email me at erin@chasingroots.com.

Stay safe out there, friends.

And thank you, Grace!

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