A Painful Memory {196}

Dear Miss Dinah,

Daddy and Eddie went to work this morning at a job that gave all of us quite a scare 2 years ago. He was working at the same farm he's at now, when he called me on the phone. He said he didn't feel so good, and couldn't walk when he tried to take a step. He said David (the guy working with him) was driving him to the hospital. He was pretty out of it, so that's all the information we got.

Ginni and I drove to the hospital (about 40 minutes) away. He was in XRay when we got there. David looked white as a ghost as he explained what happened. He told us that Daddy had been standing under an augur he was fixing when it broke and fell on him. Basically,  he was squished into a very small space against the ground, his body bending in a way that seems impossible. David, thanks to adrenaline, pried the bar off of him. The miraculous thing was that he flinched and pulled his head to one side, so the huge bar came down on his shoulder and compressed him down, instead of coming straight down on his head. Thank God, and the angels that protected him.

It turned out that the fall had cracked his pelvis, so we stayed in the hospital for two nights. He needed help getting in and out of bed. Well, you know Daddy...we made the best of it. We enjoyed visitors and watched movies. I even ventured out and investigated the town one afternoon. I found a pool and an art gallery, both of which we still visit on occasion. He ended up borrowing a walker of your Great-Grandad's for a couple of weeks. I joked that I wasn't supposed to see him shuffling around with a walker like that for another 60 years...

And he was constantly joking with the nurses and doctors. Our doctor was great, and just sat and talked with us Saturday evening while we were there.

The rest of that summer, his brother (Uncle Nick) helped pick up the slack for a lot of his jobs as Daddy recovered. As I remember though, it was hard for him to stay away from the work.

A quick tour of the house we were renting that summer...

And because the Lord lives and is powerful in our lives, less than a month later...
 Daddy and I attended my 10 year high school reunion, and he walked up 3 flights of stairs to get to the venue. And he continued to get stronger in time.

I love you,

Mamma <3