an accident postponed

As usual, my father, who is 81, kindly picked me up from the station at 8.30 last night. As he turned right off the London Road, he would have hit and seriously injured, perhaps killed a woman crossing the road, had I not shouted at him to look out. The car stopped only a foot or two from the pedestrian.

I asked him just afterwards if he’d not seen her and he said no because her clothes were dark however, I noticed, as alerted him, that, instead he’d become distracted and was actually not looking where he was driving. Nothing more was said.

This is not the first time – a few month’s back, another car, he’d again not noticed, would have hit my side of the car had I not alerted him. There’s nothing I can say to him regarding this as he is extremely defensive and evasive about even the smallest comments, perhaps because he is fearful and in denial of the effects ageing has had on him. My mother, having been disabled for some time, is dependent on him driving and to mention these incidents to her would cause her more distress and increase the already very abrasive tension between her and my father.

Thus there is no one I can talk to about this, let alone help the situation. I may have averted these accidents but fear it is only a matter of postponing the inevitable. I try not to dwell on this and other concerns about my parents and any potential victims but sometimes the worry gnaws away at me.