I was walking in Uptown once the morning after a big storm. Suddenly I heard a loud crack, and a big-ass tree branch landed about 10 feet in front of me. Yeah, it was big enough to seriously injure or kill me. Weird, as there was no wind at the time - the branch must have been severely weakened by the storm.
Makes me think of that episode of
All In the Family
where Archie is almost killed by something falling at work. So Meathead says, "Did it occur to you that maybe God was trying to kill you - and missed?"
I was in a car accident once that where the door right next to me was very nearly hit by a car going at highway speed, but the driver managed to brake and swerve just in time. Didn't get the life flashing before my eyes thing, just an "Oh, fuck," reaction.
My mother lived in Mexico City for a while (she won't tell us why), and was on a bus or tram that stopped. She didn't speak enough Spanish to know why or when it was going to start up again, so she just got off and started walking. People were yelling at her, but, still not with the Spanish-speaking.
Turned out there were fallen power cables blocking the way, and she was stepping right over the live juice.
She decided to take Spanish lessons.
Her sister had an intruder threaten to rape and kill her. She talked him out of it. Her success was one of the reasons she went into psychiatry. The other reason was the corpse in the morgue that sat up at her.
I don't always know how to take her stories.
I think I told y'all that my favorite story like that is when Mrs. Emanuel heard teenaged Rahm come to cussing a blue streak and they interview her about it later and she says "Until that moment, I wasn't sure that he was my boy anymore...he was so very close to death. But I heard him curse, and I knew he was all there and that he was going to live."
Which is fucked-up and heartwarming at the same time, isn't it?
Especially since I told my own mom that after I read the article and she said "Sounds right to me."(and she's not even the family member from Chicago...that's my dad. Who only curses when he's extra-special hostile)
I suggest with alcohol. good lord.
I have many many many mundane stories that end with "....well, that could have gone terribly wrong." When the truck I was in flipped, my only thought was "Airline crash position or cover my head?" I still don't know which I went with.
Pretty sure if I go out by accident, only thing I'll be thinking will be on that level. Or "oh, well shit."
I have never had a near death experience. Semi- relatedly, Anesthesia works really oddly on me though, and although I have only had one surgical experience (wisdom teeth) I was actually aware and frozen during it. Novacaine also does not kick in for about 40 minutes after the injection, and it takes about 2 hours for advil to work. Anyway, I hope I never have "real surgery" and end up frozen and aware, because I am not sure I could take it!
Yikes Sophia, I would highly recommend being loud and vocal early and often with Drs. should you ever need surgery.
The ER keeps telling me I've had near death experiences.
Grace's first year to maybe 18-months were always near death experiences. I think the worst of it was when we were visiting she turned blue, and there was not a sound from any of the monitors that were on her and the ventilator didn't even stop venting her. The only reason she got bagged immediately was because we were there with her.
In hindsight, Grace and Noah's birth was pretty near death for all of us, though I guess I was too naive (gotta love ignorance) to realize it at the time and only knew about it as it pertained to me well after the fact in a convo with my ob-gyn.
And yes, it has changed my outlook on life.
