A moment of magnificence while traveling (SWC).

---

After thinking about it, I decided to participate in the contest created @jerrybanfield, without a doubt writing this has been one of the most difficult things I've ever done... Well, honestly I feel that this is a Moment of Magnificence.

If you want to particpate, here it's the link to the contest.

More than a year ago, on the annual trip I used to take with my dad and my sister on vacation, the part of the trip in itself was always one of the most fun. We always left between 5:30 - 6:30 in the morning to avoid as much traffic as possible, having breakfast in peace and seeing the sunrise from the road.

This morning in particular, for family reasons, we were accompanied by his wife and my other two brothers, which is why we could not leave at the time we were always used to.

I remember that we left Caracas at about 8:30 a. m. and that we managed to take the highway at about 9:30 a. m. because of the high traffic. This fact made my dad, my sister and I feel a little discouraged about traveling because the things we used to avoid going out early had come up.

What made that day even sadder was that it started to rain about the time we left. It rained for a good stretch of travel, so we could never stop to take pictures or see the sun.

I think we were passing one of the least busy sections of the six-hour drive when it happened.

Due to the high speed and a wet road, the car ahead of us started skidding on the asphalt between the two lanes. My dad kept control of the van as best he could so he wouldn't get too close and keep it from starting to skate. For a moment I felt my heart stop from fear. His wife's face ended up whiter than a leaf and my sleeping brothers woke up.

None of us ever shouted or said anything during those fifteen seconds of danger.

Somehow, the forward driver managed to stabilize his car before the next bend. This made everyone calm down, my dad was commenting on taking a short break at the next gas station as we passed the bend when we saw it.

In the other lane, not far from where the car lost control, came a truck.

The only thing my dad could say was that we were about 10 seconds away from being involved in a very serious accident.

The sight of a truck carrying large amounts of construction materials should also have left the driver of the forward car petrified by the fact that those could have been his last moments of life if he had not regained control of his car.

For about twenty minutes we and that driver were alone again on the highway.

Twenty minutes in which the only comments from my father's wife were "I would have been the co-pilot of that car and I would have hit the driver because of his carelessness” “He saved himself by almost" and other similar things.

Shortly before arriving at the gas station, we noticed that the car went on its way.

While looking for a bathroom, I could only hear my dad tell my uncle this: “Christian, you won't believe what happened. We were barely involved in an accident very similar to yours.

After we left the gas station, we noticed that the car in front of us had not followed its path, it had stopped a couple of tents later. That's when we realized that there wasn't a single person in that car, there was a family like ours.

For my dad, God was on our side that day in such a way that ten lives were saved, since he never lost control of the truck where his whole family was going, that the forward driver managed to regain control before the turn and that truck was delayed by about twenty seconds of what he had planned.

To this day, not everyone believes that we were almost involved in what could have been a major accident. My friends didn't believe it until they heard it from my dad. Among the first things that people tell us this is that we were very lucky that day that it was a miracle that everything happened the way it did.

Over the next few days I wondered what had changed inside the person driving the car. My dad says that the first thing that should have changed is the speed at which he usually travels in the rain, because if he is a frequent traveler he should know that he can't go as if he had a sunny day when it's really raining, especially if you travel with your family, it's just not the same thing to travel alone as traveling with someone else. He said: “When you don't appreciate the things that life gives you, God usually plans a way to remind you how much you should appreciate everything that life gives you. What happened yesterday will no doubt remain in that man's mind and heart for the rest of his life, as he almost lost something very valuable to him, his family”.

To this day, not everyone believes that we were almost involved in what could have been a major accident. My friends didn't believe it until they heard it from my dad. Among the first things people tell us this is that we were very lucky that day that it was a miracle that everything happened the way it did, because everything could have turned out in a totally different way.

I still thank God for the company that made us that day to my family and the other driver's family, since I honestly feel that it was because of the one we are all still here today in this world, which is why I am writing this today.

This is a memory that will always live in me, something I will tell every time I can, I don't care if people believe me or not, I know what happened that day and I will never forget it, it's just something that is forever engraved in the memory of all those involved that day.

ImageSource

Thank you for reading and good luck to everybody.

---