The Giving and Withholding of Grace, Part I

The Insurance Adjust let me down in a big way on the Friday before my birthday.

Parker and I had been involved in a minor traffic accident early that Friday morning, and our car had been towed away to a Collision Center to undergo minor (and I mean very minor) repairs. The car had to be towed only because it's tire (or tyre, in some of the literature I've been reading lately) had been blown out, and because towing is what the insurance company recommended. The accident happened around 8:15 a.m.

My friend explained to the insurance company that this was our only vehicle, so we were told that we'd be contacted about a rental sometime that afternoon.

Parker had been suffering from a cold that wasn't getting any better, so I finally called the pediatrician's office that morning to get him a prescription for medicine. I turned the ringer back on my phone because I was concerned that I might miss that all important call from the insurance company. No call from the insurance company came.

My mother brought me her car so that I could get Parker's medicine. I took my cell phone with me so that I wouldn't miss that call. I stood in line at Wal-mart to do the preliminary work since I had not picked up a prescription there before.

As I moved toward the front of the store, my cell phone alerted me that I had missed a call. It was the insurance adjuster. "Please call me back. I'll be leaving the office in about fifteen minutes, so if I don't speak with you by then, I'll talk to you early Monday morning," his message told me. The message had been left twenty minutes ago.

I rushed outside to get a signal. The entrance attendant was standing near the doors making sure that the designated entrances and exits were observed. This never happens at Wal-mart, and it slowed me down.

I crouched outside near the soda machines to return the insurance adjuster's call. "Please if you get this message call me back! I've been standing in line waiting to get medicine for my sick child and I really need a car to drive this weekend. Please call me back."

But I was so upset. Why did this guy wait until the end of the day to call me? Why couldn't I talk with someone who could tell me what to do? How were we going to get around all weekend without a vehicle? Happy Birthday to me.

I'll give you the rest of the story, including the actual point of the story during normal waking hours in the Fox household.