Umm. . . .

Not to put too fine a point on it, but some folks seem to be seeing humor in what could have been a very serious accident.

About four weeks ago, my wife was walking a few blocks to a nearby branch library to pick up a book she had on reserve, when—and she isn't too sure exactly what happened, whether she slipped in wet leaves or tripped over a bit of rough sidewalk—she suddenly found herself uncomfortably horizontal.

Fortunately, a woman happened to be driving by at the time, saw her fall, and stopped to see if she was all right. Barbara got up painfully and realized that she wasn't going to be walking anywhere very far. The woman offered to drive her where she wanted to go. Barbara thought for a moment, then said, "Maybe I'd better go to the Swedish Hospital emergency room." Which is where the kind woman took her.

They took a bunch of X-rays and didn't find anything broken, but she could barely move and a dandy bruise was starting to develop on her left hip. In addition to bruises and pulled muscles, after a bit, she became aware that she'd also thrown her lower back out. That can be quite painful and can last awhile!

I was off in my electric wheelchair, so Barbara phoned Nancy, a friend who was just getting off work, and she came to the hospital, picked Barbara up, and brought her home. I was home by then. Barbara could barely moved. Nancy deposited her on the bed, then dashed home and came back with a walker (Zimmer frame to our British confreres) that her mother used to use before she went into a nursing home.

This happened at least a month ago, and Barbara is just now getting to where she can walk around our apartment—slowly, and taking handholds on the furniture.

We were going to have a bunch of friends over for a big Thanksgiving dinner this Thursday, but we've had to cancel that. In the meantime, some friends have offered to come over and bring us Thanksgiving dinner and spend some time with us. And we have some good friends and neighbors who are running errands and shopping for us (which I would do myself, but this is a hilly neighborhood and getting around it in a wheelchair is pretty damned strenuous on a pair of shoulders that are already shot!). God bless good friends and neighbors!

Barbara's on the mend, but it's taking it's own (not so) sweet time about it. And it's been a pretty painful process. She figures it will be a few weeks yet before she will be able to move normally again. The back still catches, but we have an excellent chiropractor who routinely gathers the stray vertebrae from our weird spines and lines them up in the proper order again whenever they go astray. And he makes house calls!!

So—the whole point of this screed is that after seeing what a simple topple on a city sidewalk can do to a person, taking a twenty foot fall out of a tree can be more than just a LITTLE serious!

The reports say that Joan suffered "minor injuries." But that is undoubtedly how such a report would characterize what Barbara's been going through.

NOT FUN, believe me! Joan has my sincere sympathy!

Don Firth