MOTH&H (Man of House & Hero)

We had a brief, but eventful Friday last week.

Because of icy road conditions, schools were delayed for two hours (later, they closed), so Mohamed left the house a little while before me. I had just left our neighborhood and was heading down Diamond Hill Road when I saw a pickup truck sitting, overturned, on its passenger side. A man was directing traffic and waved me on, so I pulled around the truck and saw that my husband's car was sitting on the side of the road with its emergency lights blinking.

I pulled over to the shoulder, parked and went to the pickup. There, standing inside the cab of the truck, was my husband, Mohamed. As it turned out, the lady driving the truck had slid on ice, hit a hill and rolled onto her side. In the process, she was pinned by her seatbelt and we later learned, her wrist was broken.

Mohamed was one of the first people on the scene. When he saw what had happened, he just took action. He climbed into the cab of truck, irregardless of the leaking gasoline and the fact that the car, itself, was sitting in the middle of the icy road. He talked to the accident victim, Debbie, he gave her his coat to keep her warm and just did his best to make an awful situation not quite so scary. There were over 100 accidents in the county last Friday morning and it took about 30 minutes for a rescue squad to arrive. All the while, freezing rain was pouring down on all of us and the road conditions were steadily worsening.

Help did come and I stood there, jaw hanging open in amazement. The firemen threw a blanket over Mohamed and Debbie. They then broke out the windshield of the pickup and took the "jaws of life" and cut the roof off of the truck (who knew that the "jaws" were generator-powered giant scissors? I didn't.). Mohamed was then able to simply back out of the cab and the rescue squad placed Debbie on backboard and took her to the local hospital.

Every now again, the person closest to you amazes you. I know that Mohamed is good man, an honest man and a lot of other wonderful things. He's also the man who leaves his smelly socks on the floor, dances like a headless, flailing chicken, watches CNN ad nauseum and a lot of other annoying things. He shocked me...genuinely shocked me Friday. I know that he's generous, but I didn't realize how completely selfless he can be. I know that he can be fierce, but his gentleness was so touching, as was the bravery he showed. He took my breath away...again. I am blessed in my marriage and so glad and grateful for him.

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Now, to the amusing part of the story. After all was said and done, I was slowly walking back to my car, clutching the vehicles parked alongside the road. I was going slow and paying attention so naturally, I fell on my butt...hard. So hard, in fact, that I fractured my tailbone (slightly).

So here I sit, high as kite on Lortab, chuckling over what my sister said to me.

Yes, Dana, Mohamed is the hero. However, you're

the one who can say, 'I busted my ass for a stranger,'

and mean it literally."

Have an enjoyable, uneventful weekend y'all. And, if I don't catch up with you before Christmas, I wish you a warm, happy, wonderful holiday!