A Freak Accident

Life happens so unexpectedly. One minute you are enjoying yourself and the next minute something can turn that joy around.

I was over my aunts house because she had a long time friend over that has become my friend. She is an avid knitter so we try to get together every once in a while. We use to go to the Stitches convention together and a couple of other crafty things within the year. I couldn't come over early because I work in the morning so I came in the later afternoon. They had a wonderful day, they went to breakfast and to one of the local yarn shops. When I arrived we all sat around talking and catching up. The friend showed her latest project which was a beautiful cabled sweater that she was working on. When she left me and my aunt sat around talking and then she packed a goodie bag for me.

Another aunt lives next store and she had a few health items to give me so I was going over there to get them and to visit a bit. My aunt said she was going over there to get some cookies. Well, she puts on (as we discovered later) the worst shoes. If you have those shoes that are your favorite but they have you walking sideways and they are all beat up you need to get rid of them because they could be that accident waiting to happen.

We were only going right next store since they live side by side in garden apartments. We are outside and she was closing her storm door and I was opening my aunts storm door, I just turned for a few seconds and when I turned back my aunt was tumbling down four concrete stairs. She wasn't moving at first and panic started as I was shaking. Then she said I think I did something to my arm and knee. To make a long story short she didn't want an ambulance, the hospital was local, with my other aunt to help I got the car and she hobbled to the car and off we went. Come to find out she broke a bone in her knee and broke a few bones in her wrist. She had no other option with the wrist except to get surgery and pins put in. It is amazing what they can do today to patch you back up.

It happened so quickly she doesn't even know what happened. But after looking at the shoes and how far her storm door comes out and it was nighttime you can see how a misstep can easily happen that can turn into a fall. All that said even though she was in a lot of pain she turns to me once she found out she was not going home and I was coming back the next day - well you better go home and pack a big bag. Now she wasn't talking about clothes but my knitting and crochet. Only another knitter would say that.

She started to feel bad about us having to upset our schedule to come up and take care of her needs. I told her life can be an inconvenience. If I haven't learned anything else once I got laid off is that we have to adjust to life even when we don't want to. Once I lost my job I had to adjust from freedom to buy and go and do to cutting it all out to survive. It's not something I wanted to do but it was the adjustment I needed to make. It's an adjustment because you don't need travel, eating out or buying material possessions to live but it makes life sweeter and fun. You learn to go with the flow because "It is what it is." And it is not like she woke up in the morning and said, Oh I think I want to take a tumble today and go for a hospital stay.

It's only been since last Saturday but it seems longer. Thank goodness for a friend that is like family that works at the hospital at night, once her shift was over she was there and stayed with my aunt all night. You have got to have someone there in and out to make sure things are taken care of. Family has scattered and the others are up in age but the phone doesn't stop ringing and family and friends that can they do. It has not been a whole week yet and she has been in the hospital and now at the rehab already. But she is on to recovery. We just say thank goodness she did not hit her head and she is more mobile because it is the left side and she is a righty. So up the highway I go with my knitting and crochet projects without a thought because family is everything.

Be safe and enjoy your weekend. Have fun for me.