With a huge grin on his face, 18 month old Michael was running as fast as his little legs would carry him. Right into the heavy traffic.....
It was Spring 1987. I had recently recovered from a 14 month long depression, which had begun as postpartum a couple of months after my son was born. But that's another story. Now I was back to my old self, full of energy, and our little family had finally left the 'nest' and moved a few blocks down Rumble Street, just into Vancouver.
Earlier that day, Grandpa Roste had walked over to visit his grandkids. Our family had lived in his basement suite during the time that my husband was a student, or for the first five years of our marriage. To Jenna and Michael, their grandparents were just like 'second parents', as they saw them every day. What fun they had playing hide and seek or watching the big airplanes fly into the Vancouver Airport.
Now in a low cost housing development, we were surrounded by families with young children. Ed had built a playhouse in our back yard, so that seemed to be an extra attraction for the neighbourhood children. For whatever reason, the little kids would start coming early in the day, and I'd be constantly checking to see if the front gate was closed. Michael, now 18 months didn't have a clue what danger was. The constant 'battle scars' he had from running and tripping showed his lack of fear. He was a happy go lucky, sturdy guy, curious about each bug he saw, he was our little explorer. When I tried keeping him in the house, he would scream and cry to be outside playing in our tiny yard. That day, I had just checked, but felt an urgency to check again a couple of minutes later. As I opened the door, I instantly froze. I was stunned to see the gate open. "Shut the gate!", I yelled again, then "Where is Michael"? One kid replied, "Michael's here" But he was gone! With my heart in my throat I frantically called, "Michael, where are you?" I started running, with 4 year old Jenna trying hard to catch up. She said, "Dear Jesus, send an angel to watch Michael", as I choked out, "Yes Lord!" We ran in one of the many directions he could have gone, but saw nothing. The adrenalin was pumping and I starting running in a new direction. Everyone I saw I yelled at, "Did you see a little blond boy?" I must have looked like a mad women, running, arms flailing, barely able to catch my breath. I had to keep going, my son's life was in the balance. I stopped long enough to frantically call Mary, gasping, "Michael lost... come... pray," I kept running. What seemed like an eternity, running, running. I saw two men sitting on the curb having their lunch, "Did you see a little blond boy?", I gasped. One of them pointed, saying, "A woman was carrying a little blond boy, going to call the police". My hope was renewed as I ran. I didn't even knock but just burst in, and blurted out, "Where did you find him?", as I ran to cradle my son up in my arms. With a disgusted look, the lady stated matter-of-factly, "He was running across Boundary Road with a big smile on his face". I lost it! I completely broke down! With deep gut-wrenching sobs, I clung onto my precious son, realising that my one and only son was just seconds from being run over! I was so out of control, that I couldn't possibly even choke out "Thank you" to the person who had saved the life of my dear sweet son. Even now, thinking about this moment in time causes me to tremble. I hope and trust that she knew how much I appreciated her. Or was it an angel who intervened? How was it that this woman in the moving traffic threw on her brakes in a split second when she saw a young toddler, then jump out of her car fast enough to rescue my son from certain death? And how did she sense to drive the 2 blocks into my townhouse complex to use someones phone? Was it an answer to Jenna's prayer, "Dear Jesus, please send an angel to watch over Michael?" I am still so thankful when I think of the close call, and I like to think of it as an Angel's Intervention! Little did I know that I would need more angels to be watching over my son. Did I mention that I went grey really young?
Every night for the next week, I woke up in the middle of the same nightmare as my little Michael was being crushed under a big truck! "I just can't take it anymore", I finally cried to my husband, after waking him up again and again. "Don't you have some holidays coming to you?" "Could we get away for a few days and go see Matt and Joey in Hazelton?" Ed checked it out with his workplace, MacMillan Bloedel Research Centre in Vancouver, and it was a go. We could get away for a week! I was so relieved!
Even during the drive up, I felt the tension begin to release.. I was starting to unwind from that traumatic event. As we drove into Matt and Joey's place, it was so great to see them again. We had shared many adventures together tree planting in northern BC and Alberta, but that's also another story! It felt so good to be away from the city, away from the traffic! But sleeping was another challenge, as we heard one mouse trap after another snap during the night. Thankfully all 20 some traps were soon filled, so we could finally fall off into dreamland.
A couple of days into our visit, Joey's Dad called unexpectedly. He was flying up from the States to have a weekend with them. We knew it was important to give them time together, so I thought fast! "I know", I said to Ed, "My friend Sylvia lives in Terrace!" Why don't I give her a call?" I tried calling, but just got her answering machine, so we decided to head up there, even if it meant scraping the barrel to pay for a motel. So, we said our goodbyes, and off we went!
We decided to just show up at their church, as Sylvia's husband was the pastor, we were quite sure they'd be there. We were certainly surprised to find out that Sylvia had a 5 day old baby girl, so the timing wasn't really great for us to come for a visit. Nevertheless, they invited us out for the afternoon to their cabin by the lake. That sounded really nice, it would be great to catch up. Sylvia and I had attended Bible School together a few years prior to this, and I knew it would be fun to have a visit. We followed them out to the cabin. The minute we arrived, I looked bewildered! "Ed, we can't be here" I insisted, as I saw their cabin was built on a 30 foot cliff! We were going from the 'frying pan into the fire'. Ed tried to calm me down, saying we'd just stop for awhile, things would be fine. I insisted to him that one of us had to hold Michael's hand at all times! Just saying that, I knew it would be impossible, as Michael was on the go all the time. So we cautiously entered in.
What made things worse, I realised, was that the sundeck didn't even have any railing up yet, it was still in the process of being built! I motioned to Ed that it was his turn, and then sat down to see the new baby. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Michael right behind his Dad, and I yelled, "Hold his hand!" Ed turned around, while Michael darted past him. Even at that age, Michael was a tease. He stood there, looking at his Dad, as he backed up. Ed, seeing the danger, cautiously beckoned his son, "Come to Daddy, Michael". Michael giggled and backed up further, and over he went! I screamed, "Oh God!" Ed leaped off the sundeck and found Michael flat on his back, too stunned to cry. He had fallen about 9 feet onto rocks, so we literally grabbed him and we were gone. I quickly mumbled our thanks, as we tore off to the nearest hospital. By that time, Michael was crying hard. We arrived at the hospital, and after being examined by the doctor on call, we were told to wake him up every hour, because he'd had a concussion. Breathing a sigh, I stated, "I don't care what it looks like, we're getting a harness and wherever we go, Michael is going to be in it. Even if we have to tie him to a tree!"
A few months later, I had to go to the bank for some urgent business to attend to. The reason I recall that particular trip, was Michael and a two year old girl I babysat had to come along. I held tightly on to each of them, insisting that they couldn't get away from me. Unfortunately, in order to sign the papers there meant that I had to let go momentarily to both toddler's hands. Of course that meant Michael took off like a flash, the little girl trying hard to keep up. When my yelling at them didn't make a difference, I quickly excused myself to the teller, and took off on the run. Wouldn't you know that just before I got to the elevator, they were on and the door closed. I was a fraction of a second too late, and my heart raced. "Oh Lord help me find them!" At the first opportunity, I jumped on the elevator, zoomed to the top floor....and systematically went down each floor, yelling "Did you see two little kids here?" This continued on down into the underground parking, of which I remember at least two levels. On P2, there they were running, laughing and chasing each other! I was beginning to wonder if I was an unfit Mother!
Just after our move to Whitecourt when Michael was 2 1/2, Ed and I took the kids to a playground there. It was only a couple of months until I would be having my third child, and I often wondered how I would keep track of Michael then. The kids had a blast, but when it was time to go, there was Michael teasing and running away. I didn't have the stamina to try and catch our little escape artist, so we decided if we began walking toward the car, maybe he'd decide to come. Grinning, he was in the middle of "I'm the King of the Castle, and you're the dirty rascal" and he either got off balance or he made a flying leap when we began to walk away. Either way, Michael fell off the top of the slide onto the sand below. Again, momentary stunned silence, and then a heart wrenching cry of pain. Ed ran, scooped him up into his arms, and off we flew to the emergency room. I watched, as before my eyes his leg became swollen. "Broken" was the word that came out of the doctor's mouth. The next thing he said almost made me laugh. He said, "make sure to keep his leg up on ice." I knew that to be a completely impossible task, but I would try! A couple of days later, we went to visit some new found friends, and you guessed it, Michael was trying to climb up their slide!
After a few days, I found it difficult to catch him, even with his leg in a cast!
Hide and go seek was one of our favourite games to play with the kids when they were little. Often they'd want to show where they were going to hide, or show us where to hide. Unfortunately, they clued in finally and got really good at it. When our family was shopping together, Michael would quickly dart under something, whether it was clothes hanging or any place he could squeeze in. We'd frantically call to see where he was, but of course he wouldn't answer, because in his mind, he was playing hide and seek with us. I worried that someone might grab him and run off sometime. My only consolation was that because he was such a handful, whoever took him would probably be wanting to return him pretty fast! I didn't want to take a chance though. Once, Ed took Michael with him to a home improvement store. Michael got away. As Ed went searching all over, his search lead him through an open door into some manager's offices. Going from one office to another, he finally found Michael up on a desk, completely messing up someones paper work. Ed didn't stick around to see who was going to be upset!
One of the really foolish things I did was trying to shop in West Edmonton Mall with my three kids. I parked right next to the toy store that I needed to quickly dash into to get a gift for one of their imminent birthdays. I reasoned that we'd be in there for a few moments; how hard could it be? Breanna was getting fussy, I could tell she was ready for a nap, and as best I could I held Michael's hand, and told Jenna to hold onto my coat on the other side. Once I had purchased the gift, I was trying to hold my package, a baby, and keep track of two kids. I had strictly ordered both children to hold tightly onto my coat. Well, you guessed it. I turned to my left, and Michael had vanished! My mind raced; how could I find Michael here in the world's largest shopping mall?! Again, panic struck! Fortunately, the first sales clerk I saw told me to calm down, exactly where to walk to, and assured me that my lost child might already be there! Adrenaline rushing, I ran to the lost and found, and waited a few minutes to see my innocent looking son smiling at me, as if to say, "You couldn't find me, ha, ha!" Fortunately, since he has grown up, I haven't had to watch his cliff jumping (while summer-saulting), climbing mountain cliffs, bungee jumping off the second highest place in the world, hitting a huge boulder skiing a double black diamond run, and the list goes on. Let's just say that I'm thankful for guardian angels.
