Maurice Henao is a lucky man and has his girlfriend to thank for it..On Jan. 9, Henao said he had finished his workday as a house manager for a rehab centre and gone grocery shopping at Vons. Then he drove to his house in Malibu and parked alongside Pacific Coast Highway. Most days, Henao said, he sits in his car for a few minutes to check messages..Henao was sitting in the driver's seat of his parked car when he received a phone call..He got out of the car to take the call. It was from his girlfriend, Brannde Shanahan, calling from her job at a nearby hospital, where she works as a secretary and nurse’s aide. .She asked him if he would go into their home and to get her bag and bring it to her at the hospital..Henao said he would do that, but it was raining hard that day and Henao said later he was irritated when she asked him to fetch her plaid tote bag..While he was in the house, Henao said he heard loud noises and went outside, where he saw a boulder on top of his car, and more rocks rolling down a neighbouring hill and onto the road..He related later he felt grateful he’d escaped a “war zone.”."The rock is the size of the whole hood," Henao said. "The windshields are all broken and the frame of the car is just all twisted.".“That phone call saved my life.”.“I skipped death,” Henao told The Washington Post. “Taking a call like that, it was some kind of a divine intervention. It wasn’t my time to go.”.The incident wasn’t unusual..California has experienced severe weather in the past two weeks, with heavy rains and floods contributing to road closures, rockslides and 20 storm-related deaths..“We have rocks fall all the time here because it’s a canyon area,” said Sgt. Christopher Soderlund of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. “The rain makes the situation worse.”.Henao said three other cars were damaged, but his car got the worst of it. The boulder crushed the roof and shattered the front window. He said his father, John Debeck, had given him the car only about three weeks earlier..He called emergency services before texting a picture of his car to Shanahan, his girlfriend of seven months. Shanahan didn’t believe the photo was real until Henao explained the sequence, which left the couple in tears. Had Shanahan called a few minutes later or earlier, Henao said, he might be dead..“Oh, you see? Me being forgetful saved your life,” Shanahan recalled joking. “It didn’t make you late this time.”.Henao said he was afraid another rock would fall as he retrieved bags from his trunk and as more time passed that evening, he recognized the magnitude of the crisis he escaped..“That was supposed to be me inside,” he said. “I’m not supposed to be here.”.He said his insurance won’t cover all of the car’s damage, so his friend created a fundraiser while Henao drives a rental. Henao said car-related stress might have crippled him in the past, but he has found a new appreciation for waking up each morning and listening to the nearby waves..“I still get goose bumps to this day just thinking, ‘What if she didn’t call?’” Henao said. “A car is replaceable, but my life isn’t.”
