I am a Diet Coke fanatic. (Before people start telling me that it isn't healthy for me, I have to admit that it is stress relief to take a long, satisfying sip of an ice cold soda. It might not be healthy, but it has kept me alive and perky!)

Being very short on money lately, and exhausted from working a long day, visions of Diet Coke floated in the air. While fishing out a one-dollar bill that desperately clung to life in the bottom of my purse, the van automatically found its way to the convenience store where a humongous drink of Diet Coke awaited me. I put my giant cup under the spigot and filled it to the brim, excited at the prospect of getting such a delight for only 89 cents! Looking up, the large soda sign smacked me in the face; this was not an "all sizes pay same price" kind of store, and a large soda was $1.49! My heart skipped a beat and actual tears of disappointment filled my eyes when I realized I didn't have enough money to pay. At just that point, the storeowner, half my age, struck up a conversation.

"That's a mighty big van out there, must be difficult for you to drive," he said.

"I have five kiddos and it fits our whole family," I answered with my back to him, still contemplating my payment dilemma.

"God bless you!" he said, "The drink is on me!" I turned around and smiled excitedly, thanking him. He could not have understood how much that gesture was such a blessing!

The truth is, our family car situation has been difficult lately. My Acura ceased to function several weeks ago, and my husband's work van, 17 years old, also died. We had to resurrect our old, 12 passenger family van, switching a couple of bald tires off with newer tires from his work van. Driving the rickety monstrosity was a challenge for me. It wobbled terribly, and I had to grip the steering wheel with 2 hands. I complained to hubby who brushed it off as being "old, what did I expect?" I drove it back and forth to work Monday and Tuesday, still cursing the challenging drive. Tuesday eve, Steven called me frantically. A friend's car had broken down near the Providence Place Mall, could I come pick them up? Annoyed about having to drive to Providence after working all day, I climbed into the van to begin the arduous task of maneuvering the eyesore onto the highway. With the van waving back and forth, I had difficulty keeping it in one lane, but finally reached Steven and pulled to the side of the road near him. His eyes bugged out as he ran to the back of the van. "Your TIRE is almost off!" he shouted, showing me where one lone lug nut, ready to fall off, had been holding it on. Just as he said that, the lug nut fell to the ground, rolled away and the tire fell sideways onto the ground! I shrieked in horror and felt like vomiting when I realized what that meant; I had been driving it for 3 days with the tire ready to fall off! (It was Steven and his ADHD that changed the tires. I suspect he got distracted somehow and never finished putting that tire on correctly.) I not only had driven it for 3 days, but I managed to drive it ON THE HIGHWAY at a HIGH RATE OF SPEED to get to Steven. How lucky was I that is didn't fall off while driving where not only I could have been killed, but I could have killed someone else? I shuddered with realization. It seemed like fate! Or luck? Or something else?

The Diet Coke and loose tire incidents may seem unrelated, but to me, both are an affirmation that luck does not come into play. I like to think it was Divine intervention, a thought both heartwarming and reassuring. A thought that always makes me smile, and so far has kept me alive!