Every so often something happens with a child that balloons your momma heart, makes you confident down to the cellular level that your child will grow up to be a fantastic human being, a stellar addition to the planet.

Yesterday morning I hit a squirrel. I was driving to pick up my oldest at summer track practice, and saw movement in my right peripheral vision, a darting motion. I looked in the rearview mirror and there it was in the street, a squirrel. Still trying to cross without the use of the lower half of its body.

To say I’m an animal person is an understatement. As a teen I used to raise orphaned and injured baby raccoons and squirrels, part of a youth volunteer corps for the town wildlife center. This squirrel was beyond help. But I couldn’t go back and do what had to be done. The car kept inching forward driven by a coward hoping another car would come along quickly.

When my son climbed into the car I told him.

“Is it still there?”

I tearfully admitted it was.

 “We should go back and drive over it,” he said. “It would want us to.”

He saw the look on my face. “I can do it. I’ll do it for you.” He only had his learner’s permit, just barely.

I said I’d do it, and drove back hoping it wouldn’t be necessary. When we got there, it wasn’t.

“Ok. It’s the best thing,” he said. My face said nothing here was the best of anything. “Now the best thing you can do is put it out of your mind. It wasn’t your fault. Just put it out of your mind. Think about something else.” He was all business, and the business was distracting me.  “What are you going to do today? What errands?… Ok, and then what? And what do you need to get ready for vacation next week?”

He was all business, and the business was distracting me.  “What are you going to do today? What errands?… Ok, and then what? And what do you need to get ready for vacation next week?”

It was one of the kindest things anyone had done for me, ever, and a snapshot preview of the person he was becoming. The guy who’d take the wheel if you needed him to.