I took a spill yesterday. Some of the key words and phrases in this story are: Starbucks. Bay Ridge. Spilled latte. Twisted ankle

After a parent-teacher conference at my son’s high school, Teen Spirit and I walked over to a Starbucks at Third Avenue and Bay Ridge Parkway.  He ordered an apple fritter and I had some kind of flavored latte.

We decided to take a car service home, so we waited in the Starbucks for our Eastern Car Service car. We thought we saw the car from the window and left the Starbucks through a glass- covered sidewalk cafe area of this Starbucks. I wasn’t even sure if there was an entrance/exit in this area, but we pushed one of the doors and it opened.

Next thing I know I am falling…I didn’t see a step and I am flying out as is my coffee cup. I spill latte all over my  brown down coat, which I was holding in my arms. I land on the sidewalk.

I do remember the feeling: I’m falling and there’s nothing I can do about this. There was a calm about it: I was resigned to it — there was no avoiding it — I am going down

"Mom, are you alright?" my son asked. He reached out his hand to me, but I decided to stay seated on the sidewalk. He picked up my coat off the sidewalk; it was covered in latte. A nice man came over at which point I started crying. "Can I help you," he said. Do you need any help?"

"No, that’s okay I have my son," and I did feel a grateful sensation that my son was there and I could just sit on the sidewalk and cry.

Seconds later I was standing. Another nice man came over. "If you just spilled your coffee you can go back inside and get another." He wasn’t a Starbucks employee. I thanked the man but declined.  We waited on the windy corner for our car.

Getting into the car I joked, "Maybe we should sue Starbucks." My son smiled in agreement. We rode home looking at the top of my foot, which was starting to swell. There was also a cut on my knee.

When moms fall apart in front of their children, there is a momentary realignment of roles. Teen Spirit had to help me up, hold my coat, make sure I was okay. I could tell he was unsettled by the event. The weird realization that mother’s cry: we experience pain, we can embarass the hell out of our children by crying on the street, our ankles can twist, we can fall.

We are human and our children must be strong. And he was. Yes, even moms fall apart and whimper all the way down Third Avenue to Park Slope feeling stupid, feeling pain, needing a Band Aid for my knee and a bandage for my foot..

We are human and our children must be strong. Sometimes.