The most unexpected knock on my door

It was Halloween night 2006, My twin sister and I were watching TV with our little sister well searching through the bucket of candy that my little sister got when my mom and her were out trick or treating earlier that night. It was a little before 9pm, my mom was getting ready for work. She worked the graveyard shift from 10pm-5am.

My twin and I had just turned 18 that April and my little sister was 9, so we were old enough to look after my little sister well my mom was at work. My mom had already been working at her job for about a year so my sisters and I were used to being at home alone all night.

I remember right before my mom had left I said to her, “Mom, remember I told you I was gonna move out as soon as I turn 18?” she said “yeah” I said “well I don’t think that’s gonna happen, I think I’m gonna live with you forever mom” she laughed and pulled me close to her and gave me a big kiss on my cheek that left her red lipstick on my face and told me that was fine with her. Then my twin came over to us and my mom hugged her too and told her, “you too” and planted a kiss on her cheek. And of course like always my little sister was getting jealous that my mom was giving us “lovies” (is what we called it) so my mom grabbed her and told her she could live with her forever too. Then my mom said she had to leave for work now and told us to be good and go to bed early and said she would see us in the morning. She grabbed her purse, her keys and put on her sweater and just before she walked out the door she gave all 3 of us one more big kiss on our cheeks, leaving more of her red lipstick on all three of us.

After my mom would leave to work, Usually My sisters and I would stay up watching tv for about an hour, So that’s what we did. We lived in a 1 bedroom apartment so my twin and I slept in the living room and my little sister slept in the room with my mom. But since my mom would be at work all night my twin and I would go sleep in my mom’s bed with my little sister until my mom got home or at least until my little sister was asleep.

It was about 3am when we were woken up by a loud knock on the door. My twin and I woke up and looked at each other, we both didn’t want to go see who it was so we just sat there waiting, hoping they would just leave. Then we heard another knock and again we just looked at each other but still didn’t want to go see who it was. Then we heard whoever it was knocking at the door go down the stairs, soon as we heard that we felt relieved so we laid back down.

Then about 5 mins later, there was another knock on the door but this time we heard a women’s voice, a formilar voice, it was the manager of the apartments we lived in. “Girls, it’s me the manger, I need you girls to open the door please.” My twin sister and I stood at the door still not wanting to open it because we were scared and just didn’t know what was going on but the formilar voice gave us the feeling that it was ok to open the door. So we opened it and there stood the manager and a police officer.

The manager told us girls the police man wants to talk to you. Then the police man thanked the manager and she went back downstairs to her own apartment. The police man asked my twin sister and I if we were the only ones home. We told him our little sister was home with us and told him she was asleep he then asked,“is your mother’s name ________?” We said “yes” he then asked “does she drive a green nissan sentra” we said “yes” then he said, “do you girls have any idea where your mother was going tonight?” we said “she went to work” and he said, “ok, well girls your mother was in an accident tonight, I don’t have a lot of information about what happened, my job is just to make sure you get to the hospital where she was taken” we said ok we’ll call our sister to come pick us up and take us. He said “is she the one who lives in Hesperia?” We said “yes” and he said “she’s already been contacted and she’s on her way to the hospital right now.” So we told him we would call our dad to come get us. And the police man said “it’s best you girls get there as soon as possible so it’s best you girls come with me and I can make sure you girls get there safe and as soon as possible and you girls can have your dad meet you there..”

We were a little scared to go with him but we got our shoes on and woke our little sister up told her to put on her slippers and grab her blanket and we went. The police man put us in the backseat of the cop car. I remember the police man said “now there’s no seatbelts back there so just try to hold on and I’m gonna try to get you girls there as fast as I can so just hold on to each other.” I remember my little sister saying the seats were hard. It was her first time riding in a police car, unfortunately it was my 3rd time riding in a police car but this was the first time I wasn’t in trouble.

The police man drove pretty fast but it’s was around 3:30am so the streets and freeway wasn’t very busy anyways. I remember my little sister whispering to us “is mommy ok?” All we could say was we don’t know. And honestly we thought everything was gonna be ok and my mom was just in the hospital cause she had some minor cuts and bruises and we would get to the hospital and she’d be able to leave with us.

But as we got to the hospital we arrived first my older sister wasn’t there yet but my dad was with her and they were on their way. A Dr asked us if we wanted to see our mom we said yes but because my little sister was too young to go in the room we had to go one at a time so one of us could wait with my little sister.

Me being the oldest I went first and it was the hardest thing I ever seen. My mom was laying in the bed, eyes closed, tubes coming out of her mouth, dried up blood on her hands. I asked the nurse if I could touch her and she said yes just don’t move her tubes. I ran my fingers in her hair and held her hand for a few mins before I walked out so my twin could come in.

As I walked towards my twin I was crying so hard but at the same time trying to hold it back so my little sister wouldn’t see. I walked up to my twin and told her go, go see mom she’s not ok and at that moment it hit my twin that this was serious and she began to cry before walking in to see her.

I held my little sister and cried, my little sister asked if mommy was ok and all I could tell her was “I don’t know, but remember how mommy taught you how to pray?” She said “ya” I said “just pray, pray she’s going to be ok.” After a few minutes my twin came out crying and all 3 of us hugged each other and cried for a few minutes, then we went to try to find a phone to call our dad but as we went down the hallway, we saw my dad and our older sister coming towards us. We ran to them, my dad hugged us tight and my older sister held my little sister. we showed my older sister where my mom was and the Doctor came and talked to my older sister. After the doctor explained everything that my mom was dealing with, The cops came and told us my mom was hit by a drunk driver. The driver had ran the red light, she was T-boned on her side of the car which trapped her in the car so The fire department had to cut her out. The impact from the hit caused her to become brain dead.

The drunk driver who hit her took off but a couple of people who seen the accident followed the drunk driver and informed the police where he was so they have him in custody.

We kept her on life support for 3 days so that we had enough time for everyone to say goodbye to her. On November 3, 2006 we let her go.