On a recent afternoon, I drove out to pick up a few things from Publix. I went out at about 2:15, wanting to avoid the traffic that I knew would get bad later on.As the light turned green at the intersection of Pine Ridge and Vineyards Boulevard, I pulled out. And as I did, I saw (out of the corner of my eye) something moving very fast, in a place I didn’t expect. It whizzed by. And after it did, I realized that a small black car had run the red light and had just missed me. “Jesus. I could have been killed, I could have been killed.” I cried as I drove.
Driving 101: When it comes to the ‘rules of the road’ in Florida, what to know about driving in ‘right lane’
When I got home, I thought about the groceries they would eventually have found in my trunk. Cilantro for my partner’s guacamole. Sweet potatoes. Napkins. Two bags of honeycrisp apples, “buy one get one free.” The items that would have cost me my life.
Then I thought about the phone calls my partner would have had to make. To my older son, who moved to L.A. last year and is doing so well. To my younger one, who starts college in a couple of weeks and just bought his textbooks. To my mother, 93 years old and still living on her own; she lost one child in 2012 and now would lose her firstborn. My sister and brothers, who would never again spend “sister time” with me.