I was just a young tad, and one summer day I came home to find my mother missing. The only evidence was a very chewed-up shoe that looked like one of hers, a power mower still in the yard, and the car gone.

She arrived home later.

Seems like she was mowing the grass and, while holding onto the handle of the power mower, stretched back to pull out a weed. She pulled the mower over her left foot, laying it open to halfway down her foot.

Fortunately, the neighbor lady had seen what had happened and while Mom stood there, ran and got some towels to wrap Mom's foot in. Then she drove her to the hospital for 148 stitches (the blade wasn't sharp, the wound was very ragged). All of this would be bad enough, but Mom went inside to put hose on her uninjured leg and to wash up before going to the ER!

We weren't permitted to use a power mower for three years after that....

How to make Mom's hair grow grayer, Part CXLVI:

Go to work on a Sunday afternoon, open a glass bottle of Coke with a ring-type opener, have the bottle neck break and slice open your thumb. From the Emergency Room, call home and say, "Hi, Mom. Guess where I am?" "(laughingly) Hospital Emergency Room!" "Right! But I'm...Mom! How did you get here to the ER so fast?"