The sun was out and the church parking lot was rapidly emptying as people headed off to enjoy the day.  A small group of us stood in a circle chatting about who knows what, having sent all of our children off to the cars to wait for us to leave. 

I remember standing there thinking something was off and I don’t even know why, but I am glad I paused and did a visual check of our suburban.  At first, it seemed ok, but as I looked closer I could see my oldest in the front passengers seat with her fingers in her ears saying something. I could not hear obviously, as I was way to far away for that, but  my eyes followed from her toward the back where the other two were. 

I could not see my middle child and my youngest was face and hand planted to the back window of the suburban, yelling something at us.  I dropped whatever was in my arms, hit that gravel at a full sprint, and probably covered the breadth of the parking lot in what seemed like only an instant. 

When I yanked the back door open, there sat our middle child on the floor of the suburban, fully the color of a blueberry, and not breathing.  In one swift motion, I literally grabbed her by the front of her dress, jerked her full force out the door and smacked her back as hard as I could!  Just as I did it, a blue hard candy shot out of her mouth and ricocheted across the parking lot to disappear into the grass. 

As I held my child and consoled her, my oldest child was still in the front seat singing to herself with her fingers in her ears and my youngest was TELLING ME OFF!!  Oh yes!  She gave me an adult version of a lecture for a good five minutes.  I was no longer allowed to give them hard candy unattended, and apparently, it was considered very rude that they had to wait in the car.  Point taken little lady!