How precious life is....

I was at the old house a few days after Christmas cleaning. I was enjoying the quiet time I had to think. I had my elbows in soapy water when my cell phone rang. Kenny was on the other end. I asked him what was going on and he said, "I almost died." I could tell from the tone of his voice that he was not joking around. He had driven up Gibson Jack to get a Skid Steer to bring back to the car lot to plow snow. He and one of the salesmen from work loaded the 11,000 lb machine onto a trailer and started back down the road to town. There is a stretch of road that is downhill with a corner. The edge of the road at the corner drops away to a steep valley. Kenny had the brakes on and was only creeping along when they came to the hill. Before they started down he joked to the other guy that the Skid Steer was so heavy it might push them off the cliff. That became a reality as they were slowly sliding down the hill. Kenny was not pushing the gas and had the brakes on but the heavy trailer was pushing them forward. He tried to turn at the corner but the road was so slick that they kept heading for the edge. The other guy opened the passenger door to jump out. Kenny realized at that moment that if he jumped out the trailer would run him over and crush him and if he stayed the trailer would likely crush the truck he was in as it crashed down the cliff.
I asked him what happened, how had they survived. He said he didn't know. At the last minute he gunned the gas and pulled it out of the slide. He was still dazed and in amazement that they had not gone over. I talked about him leaving me alone with 4 children to raise. He said as this was happening in slow motion, that was all he was thinking about. Me and the kids.
After we hung up I could not shake the somber feelings I had. I kept thinking about how precious life is. How everything I know could change in an instant. How all the little things that we fight about don't really matter. How we should never forget to tell the people we love how we feel about them. All that matters is that we make the best of the time we have here. How quickly we forget. We have a scare that shakes us up but soon we become numb and go back to our old habits. Taking everything for granted.
I am so thankful that his life was spared that day. I do not doubt that he was being watched over and protected.
I have put off this post because of how real the feelings are still. Even now as I type I am shaken. I hope I remember these feelings and hold my family a little closer.