Little Dare Devil Dana

by Mary
(North Carolina)

When I was 13 years old, I began babysitting in my neighborhood for a family with three children - Grady,9, Shelton,5, and Dana,2. Most times I sat for the Kenningtons, I could always count on Grady to actually take charge of his younger sisters and help me out when they decided to misbehave.

But one particular summer evening, Grady was not there, so I had the girls to take care of on my own! Things started off fairly well with an easy hotdog supper and clean up with paper plates. Afterwards, the girls wanted to ride their trikes around the block. The neighborhood was in the historic district and quite lovely, but the sidewalks were old and cracked and uprooted. Almost as soon as we got started, little Dana got ahead of Shelton and me and began quickly descending down a hill....and you guessed it!

Suddenly, her front trike wheel hit a broken part of the sidewalk, and Dana went flying over her handle bars. As I came racing toward her, she picked herself up, screaming at the top of her lungs with a very bloody mouth. Rather than reach out for me, she ran in the opposite direction, flying across the street almost getting hit by a car.

As Shelton and I raced after her, Dana made a beeline to the neighbor's house across the street. Mrs. Hancock ran out her front door, and Dana leaped into her arms. Mrs. Hancock was like a second mom to the Kennington children, and Dana knew that's the one she wanted! It was a good thing because Dana's lip had a big gash and needed stitches. Mrs. Hancock directed me to call the number Mr. and

Mrs. Kennington had left me, but no one answered. So Mrs. Hancock took Dana to the hospital, while I stayed back with Shelton. I finally reached the Kenningtons by phone, and they met Mrs. Hancock and Dana at the hospital. At the end of the day, when they all returned home, Dana's bottom lip was stitched and three sizes bigger...and MY HEART finally started beating again!!