In case of emergency

Often in the midst of our greatest trials we learn our greatest lessons. It is in this light that I share something I have come to feel very passionate about. It's really a very simple thing, but something that I believe if followed could help save lives.

When my friend Julie was at my home and her son began to choke (if you remember, she was alone as I had just ran to get Lucy from dance and was away for about 5 minutes) she needed to call 9-1-1. She did so using her cell phone and when they asked her for the address, she didn't know it.

Would you? Do you know your best friend's address by heart? Your parents? Do they know your address? Could those you leave to watch your children tell others your address in the event of an emergency?

After I got back from the hospital after being with Julie after Jonah passed away, I was sharing with my Mom how awful I felt about a lot of things and one was that it had to happen when I wasn't there (of course I've come to trust that this was meant to be, but it doesn't mean I don't feel bad about it) and my Mom asked, "Well what could you have done?" I answered that I know I couldn't have done anything more, but I could have at least told Julie my address so she wouldn't have had to figure that out in such a stressful moment. I recognize in our situation, her knowing my address immediately really wouldn't have changed the outcome, but it still opened my eyes to this idea.

I thought about making a cute little sign with my address on it and putting it on my fridge for all to see and I thought about the fonts and colors I could use. Then as I pondered on why I wanted to do this I knew I needed to just do something. Fancy fonts and cute pictures could wait. I then took a scrap of orange paper out of the drawer and wrote my address on it and stuck it to the side of my fridge.  I point out that it is there whenever anyone is at my home.

It's nothing big, but I believe it could help. I also believe we could just make it a given that our address can always be found on our fridge. My thoughts for this campaign are very much in the infancy stage, but like the scrap of orange paper that hangs on the side of my fridge, I know it just needs to have a start.

So I challenge all of you to put your address on the side of your fridge. Those moments of not having to scramble to figure that out just might make all the difference . . .