No Second Chance

Since hitting the age of 50 a few years back, I have had a reoccurring nightmare. I wake up in a panic with a feeling of complete dread because I thought I left my child somewhere and could not find him. Sounds ridiculous, but it must not be. In recent weeks we have read about mothers and fathers leaving their children unattended in vehicles--some with disastrous results. I joked with co-workers that women aren't supposed to have children in their 50s because our memories do start slipping. But there is nothing funny about it. I think these stories raise the question to all of us: Could I do something like that? Perhaps my nightmares are just a way of reminding me that the most horrible things can happen to good people, even good parents. If it takes a village to raise a child, perhaps we need to be paying more attention to each others' children