A warning and an accident
IT was a couple of weeks after our marriage, and my husband and I were still basking in the glow of newlywed bliss — the kind of glow that makes you think nothing could possibly go wrong. During a visit to my mother-in-law’s house, we encountered a peculiar piece of advice that, at the time, seemed like an unnecessary relic of superstition. Her house was situated near the public taps, where women came daily to fill pots with water, their chatter as constant as the splashing. As we prepared to leave for my hometown, we noticed several women passing by, carrying empty vessels on their heads. My mother-in-law stopped us and said, “Wait for the women to return with their pots full of water. It’s a bad omen to leave the house after seeing empty vessels.”
My husband and I exchanged a look that screamed, “Seriously?” Neither of us believed in such things. Bad luck? Surely, if bad omens existed, they’d look more like a black cat crossing the road. How could spotting empty vessels before leaving the house be a bad omen, while seeing one full of water is considered lucky? To us, it was just another superstition — a curious remnant of cultural lore. Politely ignoring her suggestion, we drove off in our brand-new car, brimming with excitement for the road ahead.
We were happy, carefree and perhaps a bit too distracted by the music playing on the tape recorder. As we drove through a stretch of elevated road, my husband decided to change the song, a simple action that would alter the course of our day. That’s when things went downhill — literally. In an instant, the car skidded, slid and ended up off the edge of the hill.
Now, this was the pre-seatbelt era. I got the VIP experience of the accident, headfirst into the windshield, shattering it like a rock star smashing a guitar. Glass shards got embedded in my cheek and legs. Meanwhile, my husband gripped the steering wheel tightly as if it were a lifeline, trying to maintain control. Our romantic road trip quickly transformed into a scene from a low-budget action film.
In the quiet moments of recovery, as I stared at the bandages and replayed the incident in my mind, I couldn’t help but think back to my mother-in-law’s words. Was her warning mere superstition, or was it something more — an unexplainable intuition or a cosmic signal we failed to heed?
Even now, I can’t decide. Was it destiny, fate or just a coincidence that our seemingly perfect day unravelled in such a dramatic way? The rational part of me wants to dismiss her words as baseless tradition, but a tiny voice lingers, whispering that perhaps some old beliefs aren’t as unfounded as they seem.
Whenever I see a woman carrying an empty vessel, I pause — not out of fear, but out of respect for the mysteries of life. Superstition or not, it’s a funny reminder that sometimes, life’s lessons come wrapped in the most unexpected packages: in chaos, laughter and a few shards of broken glass.
