A Crumpled Car, Broken Eggs…& a Reminder of how Precious Life is
How an unfortunate situation reminded me about what matters
Hola, amigos 🌞
Feliz Año Nuevo 🪅
I hope 2025 has started out well for each of you!
We just had our strongest earthquake to date here on Sunday: 6.3 on the Richter Scale! We had friends over for brunch and as we were all chatting in the kitchen, the kids playing upstairs, suddenly the whole cabin was rocking back and forth. We all ran outside, and it continued. Woah—that was intense! Later when we went up to the park, a huge plant pot had rolled down from its perch atop a small embankment, and its soil and plants were all over the grass.
To start off the year, since my writing is about me being honest…I have a confession to make: I’m turning 44 this week!
Ahh—that sounds surreal to me…how did young little me get to this point in my life…ALREADY?!?? Saw this the other day…
As I look back, I did live a happy, exciting life throughout my teens, twenties, and thirties…and so it continues 😅
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
—Mary Oliver
Looking back…this past year has been SO full!
We’ve:
Lived in 3 different rentals…2 houses, and now a cabin.
Had more cats and dogs around than we can properly track…and fed and fixed most of them.
Done more exploring in this country—El Pital, Berlin, and Lago de Coatepeque…to name a few new places
Realized our girls prefer homeschooling over a rigid schedule
Started managing an Airbnb on the beach
Met more expats here with similar reasons for leaving their homelands
We had a lovely time with Tom’s parents here for the whole month of December! We did a lot of the usual—spending time up in the mountains and at the beach, a bit of sight-seeing, a little time in the city too. One highlight of our time with them was staying near Lago de Coatepeque for a couple nights. We did a boat tour on the lake, seeing some beautiful properties lining the shore, and enjoying a swim at a quaint little beach too. Our view of the lake from the Airbnb was spectacular, especially at sunset.
I’ve been doing a LOT of soul-searching in the last few days. Maybe it’s because it’s a new year. Maybe it’s because I feel like I’m getting older, and another birthday is upon me. Or maybe it’s because I was in a car accident recently, just 2 days before Christmas, and that experience made me more aware of my fragile human state. It also made me SO grateful…more on that in a bit…
Whatever the reason, I’ve been asking,
“What does it look like to live FULLY in this short life I was given?”
“What can we do to help orphans and vulnerable people here in El Salvador?”
“How can I help the girls at the orphanage go on to higher education? How can I help find sponsors for them?”
“Why do I have these daily struggles with chronic pain (scoliosis-related) and allergies?”
“How can we help ALL these stray animals?”
“How are we raising our kids..?”
“Are they getting what they need?”
I don’t mean to start the year off on a downer. BUT, the truth is that we live in such a broken world. There’s pain, suffering, and struggle all around us, and in our own lives too. It’s sometimes hard to feel like we’re treading somewhere ABOVE it all…and living a joyous, fulfilling life.
As I mentioned, I was in a car accident recently. On the morning of December 23, we packed into the car and drove the windy road down to the beach. The girls and Tom’s mom sat in the back, his dad and I were in the front for the hour-long drive. Tom is training for an upcoming 55-km ultramarathon, and was running 30+km from up in the mountains down to the beach.
We stopped by the orphanage in El Tunco, just a few minutes out of our way, to drop off a few bags of donations and pick up some eggs. I bought 3 flats of 30 for friends, and 3 for ourselves—we eat LOTS of eggs! We then drove to our friends’ place to deliver the eggs, and the girls dropped off some Christmas cards and a gift for their friend.
Tom was running on the beach road when we neared the Airbnb we help manage. He’d finished his long training run—ALL 31.5 kilometres! He was dripping with sweat, completely exhausted, and famished too. I gave him the smoothie I’d brought for him, and hopped in the car to get him a burger and fries at the nearby shopping center, El Encuentro, which recently opened up.
After running a few errands, I was excited to get back to the Airbnb and relax a bit. It’s an incredible place, right on the beach. As I returned on the highway, I signaled left, slowed down, and then stopped, waiting for traffic to clear. I’d been there for about 5-10 seconds when I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a car speeding toward me, and felt and heard the inevitable..
“BOOM!”
I still made the turn, but was in complete shock and disbelief. Clutching the wheel, I tried to think straight. I looked back to see a white car pulled over on the opposite side of the highway. I got out of my car, looked at my dented in bumper and crumpled up hatch, and saw a young man crossing the road. As he approached, I wondered what to say.
“You didn’t signal in time. You stopped suddenly!” he accused.
I denied the claims, telling him in Spanish that I’d slowed down and signaled about 50 meters back, and had been waiting until it was safe to turn left.
Probably because he didn’t have insurance, he seemed to be desperate to pin the blame on me. Since he kept repeating his claims, I decided it was best to involve a third party.
He was willing to speak with Tom who was at the beach house nearby.
I called Tom, hardly able to speak, telling him I’d been rear-ended. He asked if I was okay.
“I’m OK. I just need you to be there. Please just be there!”
I began to sob. I had to hang up. I was a mess. I drove the half kilometer, almost shaking, trying to pull myself together.
The guy, his wife, and an older woman (his mom?) got out of the car. The elderly woman was complaining of chest pain from the suddenness of the crash.
I felt bad, and showed her my sympathy, saying, “¡Lo siento!” (I’m sorry) which literally means, “I feel it!” And I thought, “Yes, I do feel it.” I was still in shock, hardly able to form sentences, and wondering if my head would ever stop spinning and words wouldn’t feel so difficult to form.
By this point, one of the caretakers of our Airbnb was there, outside the gate, too. He was trying to work out with the guy and myself what had happened. I was thankful he could communicate in Spanish, so as to be a mediator. Even though I had to speak in my basic Spanish with him, he seemed quite empathetic. Tom came and gave me a hug. After several minutes of Tom, myself, our caretaker, and the guy exchanging details, two little children emerged from the backseat of the car. I was surprised to see them. Had they actually been in there this whole time?!
The little girl (about 6) was crying, and her younger brother looked upset. I remembered I’d bought an extra bag of coconut water “coco helado” at a roadside stand to give my girls.
I grabbed it from the front of the car, and went over to them, wanting to somehow comfort them in their distress. They took it gratefully, and their mom said, “¡Muchas gracias!”
We were thankful that Tom’s parents were with our girls, enjoying the sunny, sandy beach and waves nearby, and didn’t yet know what had happened.
I was also beyond grateful to Tom for handling all the communication and making the call to our insurance company. After awhile, I took a much-needed break to soak in the sun and the beauty of the ocean near the house.
As I lay there, I said,
“Thank YOU!!”
I realized how short and fragile this life I’ve been given is. And felt tangibly that things could’ve been MUCH worse, but I’d been protected and spared. Other than the shock of it, I felt overall like I had little to no pain. The girls and my in-laws came back after awhile. Tom’s mom was almost speechless when she saw the car. She gave me a much-needed, tight-squeeze hug.
After about 2 hours of waiting, an insurance assessor finally came. We had to answer his questions, fill out some paperwork, and then he told us we needed to go to the police station to file a police report within 24 hours.
Since Tom was exhausted from his long run, and we had to get everyone back up to our mountain home for dinner, we decided to wait till the next morning to do the report.
It was a challenge to put our things in the car. We had to flip down one of the back seats, because the hatch wouldn’t budge. It was crumpled in and wedged into place. We’re still driving in style as we speak!
We put all our things into garbage bags—to protect them from the stinky, slimy eggs smashed around in the trunk.
“Eww—this will be a fun clean-up later!” I thought to myself.
Then, the 7 of us piled in, and we drove our dilapidated car home, returning after dark. My middle daughter and I spent awhile after dinner rescuing the whole eggs from the trunk. She was on her tummy doing a bit of an army crawl in there. All the unbroken eggs were smothered in orangey-yellow goop from the broken ones, so afterwards we had to hand-wash each one. It was quite the stinky mess trying to get them all out! But we managed to rescue about 35 of the original 90. And we wiped out the goop as best as we could. The stray dogs were excited to have all those raw broken eggs, and feasted happily on them, licking them out of the shells. Yeah, I know—gross. But, like I said, I’m writing about the raw…and the real here, folks 😝😄
I pulled the whole rug out of the trunk the next morning and spent awhile scrubbing egg out of it with vinegar and soap. Then I’d lay it out to dry in the sun. I had to do this three times before the smell wasn’t so bad!
Last week, I was driving my crumpled car with the lingering odour of rotting eggs. Let’s just say, I’d scrub it out better if I could just open the trunk! We have to wait to get the car fixed—there’s a bit of a process when you go through repairing a vehicle using insurance.
That day I was feeling anxious. I was a bit stressed about all the things we needed to get done: the car repair, getting ready for more Airbnb guests, groceries I should buy, all the little things seemed to be adding up…and Tom’s parents had just left, so it felt like we were on our own again, missing them. It was almost overwhelming, as I continued on my way to buy flowers and fruit for the new guests coming in a couple hours.
Then, while driving on those busy streets, I knew I needed a shift. So, I asked God to help me be thankful.
Immediately I felt a change, as I started saying,
“Thank you for this life, for Your protection, for my friends and family, for my amazing husband, for our healthy, vibrant girls, for flowers and fruit, for incredible nature all around us, for this car, for new beginnings in 2025…”
It struck me then, as it has many times since the accident—I was protected—God was watching out for me that day. I was a little stiff and sore for a week or so afterwards, but overall I was basically fine. And our car, crumpled though it is, was used as a buffer to spare me from much worse harm.
Thank you, Jesus, guardian angels, and thank you, little car!
A bashed up car and a few spoiled eggs…BUT, I started to see more of the BIGGER picture, and I feel so incredibly grateful for the lessons learned—life is short, and I only have today 🙏💝
Thanks for reading, friends!
¡Gracias por leer, amigos!
Until next time…
Hasta luego…
Sorry you went thru that but I'm so thankful you're okay. You gleaned great lessons too and wrote them well. Good work and so much to be thankful for. I wish I could drop in but your writing helps me feel like I am/we are. Thanks!
Car accident..ugh. Never fun. In Canada at least, it is ALWAYS, the rear-end--or at fault. Never the rear-end-ee. Alas this is El Salvador so YMMV lol. Anyway, yes the proper attitude, after the shock wears off, is gratitude. Things could have been worse. Much worse.
And you're right, you have so much to be grateful for. We all do. Hopefully the crumple-mobile gets fixed soon! Glad your 44 year old exterior is still intact & thriving! :)
PS no kidding eggs are not fun when they break in a confined space. Have broken a few in mi moto topcase.(packing them securely is an art - potholes are not your friend)) The thought of cleaning up 55 broken eggs out of a trunk is most unappealing. Kudos to your ninja middle daughter!