Parenting - When Does It End?

I know, at death...I try not to think of that. What I mean is when can I relax and know that my daughter will be ok, and I don't have to worry about her anymore? Probably never. Here is an example...

My 20 year old child is driving her first car this year. On Friday we had some snow and she was driving home in it. Not a big deal...she drove on the east coast in nastier weather. She got home and told me of her ordeal...was picking up her cat at the airport that night and while driving around a large bend in the road, she was forced to stay in the tracks of others, and drive slow because it was quite slippery and (something the Yukon seems oblivious to is actually plowing their streets and highways...personally I do NOT understand their method - instead they just throw dirt on the road) a tractor trailer was coming in the opposite direction, and hogging the centre line, likely because it was difficult to tell where the hell the road was, since it wasn't plowed or sanded. What effect this had on A. was she was then forced to abandon the tracks of others and move over into freshly fallen snow...anyone could predict what happened next.

Slipping, sliding, spinning, sliding, some more spinning, and finally the tractor trailer had passed her, leaving her car a shuddering mass in its wake and A. was now facing the ditch's edge. How she did not get killed that night, I do not know. She said she spun several times around and thought for sure she was going to be smoked by the truck. When she finally got to a halt, the cat let out a tiny "mewl" and that was it.

So, knowing that she nearly met her maker on Friday night, she called from her boyfriend's place on Saturday night, earlier on to say that she was going to be coming home again tonight, but not until later. Fine. It's still snowing but she will take her time. SHE DOESN'T COME HOME. As a parent who has a child who just told her of the nightmare from the night before, would you be worried? OF COURSE!

Now, she did tell me she was going to be watching movies with the b/f so I did have it in the back of my mind that if she didn't come home, she likely fell asleep watching movies...she doesn't have much of an attention span sometimes and will fall asleep anywhere. However, I fretted all night until at 2am I couldn't take it anymore and went to bed. The very least she could have done was CALLED ME to let me know that she is in fact, alive. I had even contemplated going out looking for her car in the ditch along the way, but I'm no fool. My car was buried in snow and the road conditions no better. The hospital has me as her next of kin, and they hadn't called (see where a mother's mind goes?) and neither had the police. Of course, I didn't sleep well and waited until I couldn't stand it anymore in the morning and called her boyfriend's place. My heart leapt when one of his roomies said her car wasn't there. Then I asked for more information and found out she went to work that morning...ok then, still alive.

I think I would have rather that she didn't tell me her story from Friday night.

I don't think that parenting ends until either you or they expire. Oh me nerves...I am turning into my mother...

no I'm not...I am just worrying about my only child.