February 21, 2009 – the date of my car accident. It seems very far away and it is. I try to give it the memory that it needs but not to draw a lot of thought to it. I mean, it is always there, but it doesn’t inhibit me from driving on highways, in the rain, and sometimes even when it snows. I even drove out to the airport on the 401 a few weeks ago to the international centre. I thought about it after the fact and realized how long it had been since I had been out that far on the 401, well, my mother reminded me.

And then tonight, two shows on tv, one real and one fiction, both shed light on how lucky I really was that night.

The first show that was on was Extreme makeover home addition. This young man was doing a back flip in his backyard, fell wrong and became a parapalegic. Not a car accident, but just that, snap – in a instant, lives changed forever. Really it was hard to watch. I had to keep my tears in check, as my niece Zoe was watching my face as I watched the show. We left their house shortly thereafter, so I didn’t see the end of the show and to see what amazing things ABC did for this young man and his family.

Second show – Private Practice. A young pregnant woman survives a car accident but has a traumatic brain injury. Very much like the movie 50 first dates with Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler if you saw it. She has to live her life without any long term memory. She doesn’t even know she is pregnant. Can you imagine a life like that? The husband says to his therapist – that sometimes he wishes she had died, and what a horrible person he must be. All because of something that happens in a split second.

My car slid off the highway, into the ditch and flipped over. Other than the obvious psychological trauma I have been faced with these last 2 1/2 years, my only problem is my left arm which kind of always has a dull ache. It aches more when the weather is going to change and when it rains, but that is it.

How freaking lucky was I? Pretty freaking lucky I would say.