Emergency Contact

I never realized a simple line on a form could stop me in my tracks and bring me to tears.

As I sat in the waiting room of the doctor’s office two years ago with the clipboard and standard information forms, I was caught off guard. I was scheduled to have a simple outpatient procedure, and I needed a local emergency contact.

For the previous 36 years of my life, this had been a straightforward question. My emergency contact had always been my mom or dad. Then when I graduated from college, I was engaged, and it became my now ex-husband.

On this day, as a newly divorced woman, I had no idea who to put on that line.

My parents live over 1,000 miles away, which I didn’t think would count as “local.” My kids were 7 and 5, not the most reliable of contacts. I felt a deep sadness; I felt alone. I felt lost. That blank line stared back at me as I wiped away a tear falling down my cheek. Going through a divorce is tough for many reasons, but on this day, the finality of it really hit me.

After 11 years of marriage, I no longer had my go-to, built-in emergency contact. 

It so happened that as I sat staring at the clipboard, my phone dinged with a text from one of my very best friends. She was asking me about a baby shower we were throwing for a friend.

Rather than respond with, “yes, I will get the cake,” I immediately replied and asked her if she would be my emergency contact.

I was surprisingly nervous as I anxiously awaited her response. Those three dots taunted me on my phone screen.

Do you know what she said?

She said, “I thought I already was. You have been my emergency contact for years.”

Suddenly, those feelings of loneliness and fear were quickly overcome by feelings of love and gratefulness.

That day I needed an emergency contact to call if I had an adverse reaction to the medication.

But what about when I get a flat tire?

What about when my smoke alarm won’t stop beeping?

What about when I get caught in a meeting and need someone to pick up my kids?

Or what about when I just need someone to help me zip up a dress (which we all know can be a real emergency!)?

Although there is no clipboard and form for those situations, it struck me that I absolutely know who my emergency contacts are for each case.

I learned a very valuable lesson.

My life may have changed a lot when I got a divorce, but I was far from alone.

I realized that I had several people I could have asked to be my emergency contact that day and every day. And you know what, something that seems so trivial and small is really an important and special honor.

My medical procedure went fine, and no one had to call my emergency contact. But since that day, I have called on my many emergency contacts numerous times. If you have never been stumped by having to give an emergency contact, consider yourself lucky. Regardless of one’s marital status, most of us have those special people in our lives we can call for the most important (and sometimes not so important) moments.

So, take the time today to reach out to your emergency contacts and tell them how much you appreciate them. I know I will!