A Letter

Dear Ma'am,

Although I do not know you and I have never seen you before, I will never forget you. While you were driving to work yesterday, talking on your cellphone (which is illegal in DC), you hit my husband. I cannot imagine what went through your head as you recklessly sped around the corner and through a cross walk and found yourself face to face with a 6'3" man on your windshield. I would hope that your first thought would have been "I hope he's okay." I'm sure you also thought "I hope he doesn't call the cops." You are lucky- he was too shocked to think about anything besides walking away. Let me tell you what my thoughts were after learning about what happened. I thought, "Thank God he is okay." Then I thought, "What if he had been hurt?" Then I thought, "What if he had been killed?" I imagined my husband- my best friend and soul mate- laying mangled somewhere. I thought of myself, our daughter, and our unborn child trying to live in a world without him. Instead of happily playing with my two year old in our Music Together class, I sat with my head in my hands, sobbing. I merely existed for the rest of the day, wandering around aimlessly and going through the motions of my daily activities. I did not spend more than 20 minutes out of close physical proximity of my husband from the time he got home until we both the left the house for our separate destinations this morning. We have been together for 11 1/2 years. In that time I can very honestly say that I have never taken my husband for granted or not appreciated him. I have always thought about how lucky I am to have him each and every day, and that my very worst fear in the world is to lose him. Because of you, yesterday, that fear almost came true. I hope you felt at least a small fraction of the fear that he and I felt yesterday morning. I hope this fear inspires you to be more careful from now on.