The Guilt of a Mishap

It was time for Dan and I to have a much needed date night and there was a co-worker of mine whose daughter had just turned 16, got her license and was looking for work. I called her mom and asked if she could drive to our town and her mom said she thought that it would be all right so I gave her a call and we were all set to go. Everything went pretty smoothly. Dan and I enjoyed a dinner out and did some window shopping and had a few drinks and headed home. The kids did great with their new babysitter and she said that she would love to come and babysit for us again. Great! We got a phone call a few minutes after she left and she had gotten a little mixed up leaving our sub-division. Dan went and found her and brought her out to the road that would take her where she needed to go. I called her cell about 10-15 minutes later to check on her and be sure that she found the right turn for the highway and left a message on her cell phone. Dan and I were pretty excited to have a high school student who was really good with the kids and would be available and started planning different things that we would like to go do. In the morning on my way to work I noticed that I had a couple of voice mails and listened to them. Well, one of them was my co-worker and she had called at around 10:30pm the night before. Her daughter got mixed around in the dark and ended up getting in a car accident. I immediately called her to find out what happened and be sure that she was alright. Thank goodness she was okay, but she did hit a car that was in a turning lane head and smucked up her car. Let me tell you how bad Dan and I felt - HORRIBLE! I still keep replaying what we could have done differently - better directions, sent her home a different way than she came, numerous things. I still feel bad. Here you have a brand new driver who is now probably a little gun shy of driving, she now has no car to drive, and she has to go to court for the accident. UGH. I talked to her mom today and she is doing okay and has gotten behind the wheel again. She is also upset because she wants to come and do some more babysitting for us and is probably a little embarrassed. I think for a few times (if she can use one of her parents cars) we will have her come and watch the kids on a Saturday or Sunday during the daytime until she is more comfortable with how to get to our house and then her mom said if we could pick her up to watch the kids she could come and get her or meet us halfway. I still feel just horrible, but her mom said that it's not our fault and then at the end of our last conversation said, You are released of all of your Catholic guilt. (I thought that was a little funny).