[blparent] A Little Scare

Fri Oct 15 22:11:57 UTC 2010

I can just not lock the door and it will stay that way, but it's gotten to 
be such a habit over the years to always lock it when I get in the house, so 
it's going to be a big change to stop doing that.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Veronica Smith" <madison_tewe at spinn.net>
Sent: Friday, October 15, 2010 4:08 PM
To: "'NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List'" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blparent] A Little Scare

> Can you fix your door  so it doesn't automatically lock.  That's what
> happened to me when Gab was a  toddler and I had the lock/door knob 
> changed.
> V
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Jo Elizabeth Pinto
> Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2010 11:52 PM
> To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
> Subject: [blparent] A Little Scare
>
> Sarah and I had a little scare this evening.  I'm writing about it in 
> hopes
> that it might save someone else the trauma.  We're none the worse for 
> wear,
> but unexpected things can happen so quickly you wouldn't believe it.
>
> We went out on the front porch to brush Ballad, my black Labrador guide 
> dog,
> who is shedding right now like there's no tomorrow.  We'd been out there a
> half hour or so, with the front door standing open, and Sarah was playing
> with the combs and brushes.  She had wandered in and out of the house a 
> few
> times, so I didn't think anything of it.  But then she went in and, quick 
> as
> a flash, pushed the big wooden front door shut.
>
> Click!  The door was locked.  Sarah was in the house by herself.  I was on
> the porch with Ballad, but with no harness or leash, no keys, and no cell
> phone.  Sarah soon got upset, banging on the window by the door and crying
> for me to let her out.  I was stuck.
>
> I always carry a spare key with me, but it was safely in the diaper bag,
> which was in the house.  One other person who lives in town nearby has a
> key, but I had no phone to call her with.  I went to the nearest 
> neighbor's
> house and pounded on his door, but he wasn't home.  I didn't want to leave
> Sarah alone to go further, looking for another neighbor and not able to be
> quick about it with no cane or dog, because I thought it would be worse 
> for
> her if she was by herself and couldn't see or hear me.  Gerald was due 
> home
> in about a half an hour, and I knew it would take nearly that long for my
> friend with the key to wake up since she works nights, drive over to my
> house, and let me in.  So I decided that the best plan was to keep Sarah
> near the window where she could see me, and where I could hear her and 
> know
> she was all right.  If it were going to be longer than a half an hour, I
> would have gone as far as need be to find a phone and called my friend or
> the police department.
>
> Let me tell you, that was the longest half hour I've ever lived through.
> Sarah was crying and yelling inside the house the whole time, begging me 
> to
> open the door.  I just kept as calm outwardly as I could and talked to 
> her,
> tapping on the window so she would look out at me and telling her that
> everything would be okay, that the door was locked and I couldn't open it
> but Daddy would be coming home soon with the keys.  Inwardly, I felt like 
> I
> was about to lose my mind.
>
> Gerald arrived as expected, and Sarah was fine.  She was easily consoled,
> but she was pretty clingy all evening, and she's woke up calling for me 
> once
> already since I put her to bed.  (Boy, does that make me feel like the
> mother of the year or what?)  All's well that ends well, but I can say for
> sure, I'll be having another key made this weekend and hiding it somewhere
> outside.  I've never felt so helpless.  I wanted to smash through the 
> window
> and get inside to my crying baby any way I could.  I'm feeling weepy just
> thinking about it.  I'm already a plan for everything type, thinking of 
> what
> could happen and bringing extra stuff with me just in case, but I'm sure
> I'll be even more that way for some time to come.
>
> Jo Elizabeth
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