January 20, 1993 … a day that will live in infamy. Iowa basketball star Chris Street had died tragically the evening before, and the accident was the topic of conversation at work that morning. We barely gave a thought to the weather; however, as noon approached, the talk had turned to words like, “warnings,” “ice” and those two words every working mother dreads to hear, “early dismissal.” At that time in my life at Cornell, I only worked until noon – and as the Chapel bell chimed twelve, I was on my way to a very interesting trip to my Mount Vernon home, nine tenths of a mile from campus. I believe school had let out at 11:30, so I was a bit surprised to see a Mount Vernon school bus at the bottom of 5th Ave. and College Blvd. obviously not going anywhere. I took the opportunity to dodge that obstacle by turning left (east) onto 3rd Street. Immediately I realized that my Aerostar van was no match for the ice-covered pavement beneath it. I slid one way and then another, fortunat...