Between my mom's fervent recital of the Memorare before I was ever born, and my present-day devotion to Our Lady, I really think she listens to every single prayer I say (See this blog from August).
Another case en pointe: on Monday it started to snow about an hour before we left for CAST. As our van is a piece of crap held together with bailing wire and a shoelace (and I use that term generously), I was really nervous about driving it in the snow. Especially on hills, especially on the one right by the Newman Center. There sits an intersection with no stop signs at the bottom on the hill, and there were two people in the backseat.
As we got to the end of the alley, I REALLY felt the need to pray, so Jon and Genny and I rattled off a few to Our Lady. By the time we hit the street at the end of the alley and the end of the second Hail Mary, we were sliding backward down Oak Street. Jon and Genny didn't seem too scared, but I didn't tell them that I was STANDING on the brakes while we were sliding backward.
We managed to stop on the hill while the traffic worked around us. We couldn't drive forward because the wheels kept spinning out.
But THEN I remembered a trick I learned on the road crew, which is to put on the emergency brake and drive on it (damn Mitch Hedburg for making me think twice about it!); that keeps the wheels from rolling backwards while you lunge forward. It's like the poor man's four-wheel drive.
So we made it back up, and then I called the lady who runs CAST. And it turned out that since the weather was so bad, they opened the cold weather shelters. And when the cold weather shelters are open, we don't serve on the street (if we're not giving out food outside, then people are much more likely to go inside for dinner, thus getting warm and probably being offered a bed).
So we were back in the alley and didn't have to drive anywhere. So we were safe.
I tell you, Our Lady's an attentive one. She hasn't forgotten me (or anyone else) yet.
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