"I Felt a Car Was About to Crash Into the Wall, So I Moved My Daughters Aside"

My friends and I were driving on the highway when a car ahead had kayaks strapped to its roof. I told everyone I’d switch lanes just in case they fell off—like in a horror movie I’d seen. They laughed and called me crazy, but I didn’t care. Minutes later, a strap came loose and all the kayaks crashed onto the road. No one got hurt, but since then, my friends definitely listen to me more.

All the moms thought I was overreacting when I called the police about a man standing at the edge of the playground. Everyone said he was probably just waiting for someone, but I felt something was off. When the police checked him out, it turned out he was taking photos of kids and had a history of child abuse. Trust your instincts.

One day, I felt a small bump on my 3-year-old son’s head. Despite my husband’s protests, I looked it up online. When I told the pediatrician I thought it might be a tumor growing into the bone, he just rolled his eyes. He said it was a one-in-a-million chance and probably just a bruise that would heal. But I insisted on an X-ray—and when he saw the results, he was speechless. Sometimes, the “paranoid” mom is right.

My son is healthy now.

My friend laughed when she saw me toss a tube of glue into my backpack before our hike. But after just 10 kilometers, her new shoe sole came off—and I fixed it right then and there. Guess who was smiling then?

We stopped at a gas station, and my daughters were playing by the building’s side. I told them to move away because I had a feeling that if a driver lost control, they’d crash right into that wall. As soon as they moved, a motorcyclist crashed exactly where they had been playing. Sometimes, your gut knows best.

I'm right-handed, but I’ve always had an irrational fear of losing my dominant hand. So since I was a kid, I consciously trained my left hand—writing, fixing things, practicing ambidexterity. That paranoia paid off twenty years later when I had to have two fingers amputated on my right hand after an accident.

One day, on a whim, I tossed a fire extinguisher into my car trunk from the garage. That very day, two cars crashed right in front of me and one caught fire. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and everyone was grateful I was prepared.

Suddenly, I developed a severe migraine with blurry vision—and even double vision at times. I was scared to drive and couldn’t work because I couldn’t see my screen clearly. My doctor said it was just stress and exhaustion, but I felt something more serious was going on. I looked up my symptoms online and found that some medications can cause double vision. One of the meds I was taking was on that list. As soon as I stopped, my symptoms disappeared. If I hadn’t trusted myself and researched, I might have lost my sight.

We held our wedding on a remote farm, and when I asked the event planner how long an ambulance would take to arrive, everyone laughed. My wife, mother-in-law, and family all thought I was paranoid. But no one was laughing when my uncle fell ill during the party and we had to call an ambulance.

My friend had never been sick, but one morning he woke up with a bit of blood on his pillow and a sore mouth. He shrugged it off, but I couldn’t forget it. A month later, I wanted to surprise him, but he didn’t answer the door. I had a bad feeling, so I broke a window and went inside. I found him lying on the kitchen floor with bloody foam around his mouth. It turned out he has a rare neurological condition, and his doctor said if he’d been brought in later, his kidneys would have failed. I’m glad I trusted my gut and didn’t hesitate to act.

Photos: istockphoto.com