A Back-Breaking Moment

Every family has stories to tell. Most of the stories in my family that involve the "not so bright" moments involve my oldest sister Vicky. I am not being facetious only honest, read her blog. I grew up on stories about my oldest sister getting stuck in the cemetery, driving into log trucks, letting my middle sister nearly bleed to death, and so many more; however there weren't any stories about me. Little did I know today was going to change that forever.

It all started when my dad took a job with the De Queen School System. Each day he drove his big yellow school bus home and parked it at the end of the street. We lived on a dead-end street and the neighborhood was very kind about his doing this. Our house was located on the right hand side of the road and was one of the cutest houses on the block. My parents took great pride in their home and yard. It was always clean and the yard was always manicured. Our little brown brick house was the seemingly perfect place to live. With a long concrete drive-way on the right side of the house it seemed almost perfect. However on the left side of the house leading to a carport the driveway was steep and full of gravel.

One Saturday morning my dad decided he needed to clean his bus out. He pulled the bus up into the steep gravel drive-way as far as he could leaving the back side of the bus about ten or eleven feet from the ground. Being daddy's seven year old little girl I excitingly went outside to help him clean the bus. I am still not sure how it all came about but my wonderful dad gave me the broom and said get after it and inside he went. Talk about child labor. I was so proud that my dad trusted me to clean his big yellow bus. I was going to do the best job ever. I swept all the dirt out from under the seats into the middle isle. The bus was looking so clean. I went to the front of the bus and started walking backwards sweeping the dirt between my legs so it would stay behind me. What happened next made every neighbor that was outside working in their yards come running. I backed right out the back door of the bus and ten feet later landed square on my back. My parents heard me scream from inside the house and came running as did our neighbors. My dad in his infinite wisdom said we are not calling an ambulance.

Tucked away in the shed he had a dolly that rolls underneath cars to allow the mechanic to work. He ran and got the dolly and ever so carefully rolled me over onto it, then carried me in the house where my parents begin to pray. Within just a few minutes I was moving around and acting like nothing had happened. Once again God showed His mercy in my life.

To this day my parents nor my oldest sister has allowed me or anyone else to forget, Nancy backing out of a bus.