The Accident

What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “The Accident”?

My grandma’s house is full of accidental antiques, because she cares for things so well. That’s how, when I went to visit her over a long weekend, we were able to spend our time together looking through the past.

Her paper ephemera is all in crisp condition, and she showed me those snippets of her life –report cards from the 1940s, a hairdressing license from 50s, court proceedings from the 80s, and even typewritten letters to herself from the 90s.

In one of these letters, she questions how she suffered a severe personality change and brain injury “from that car accident they say was in July of 1986.”

I remember, as a curious child, asking others about the accident. It wasn’t until reading her letters I realized that she had to ask too. The two of us have only heard stories about what happened – about how and who she used to be. In drafting “The Accident,” I’ve tried to recreate that weekend we spent together: piecing together the timeline and fallout of something incomprehensible.

I love my grandma as the kind and caring hero she’s always been to me. But when I told her how glad I was she didn’t die, she didn’t smile back. She put her papers away softly and said, “I did die. I just can’t remember.”