numerous times in an armed robbery. I can't even remember
how many bullets anymore. 17? 19? And it was hard to count
since some were exit wounds.
I remember the first day he came home from the hospital
after spending 3 weeks there. It took me THREE hours to
dress all his wounds...and I was suppose to do this 3 times a
day!
How in the world was I going to manage that?! This
even included my Mom coming over to our watch 3 year old
Tyler because there was no way I could keep everything
sterile with him in the room.
But over the course of several days I got the process down to
45 minutes a time. That was doable.
As my father use to say through out his life, "That which we
persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself
has changed, but our ability to do so has increased." (or
something like that).
Those weren't my Dad's words but they always will be to me.
He said them often to us growing up. And it's how he lived his
life. (I would say it's still how he lives his life, but I don't think
the task of living in a wheel chair ever gets easier.)
This picture of Tyler and McKay was taken
close to that period of time 29 years ago.
I can still picture these two little guys riding the elevator with me
up to the 6th floor of the hospital wearing their little red coats.
They would both scramble to push all the buttons to make the
elevator go faster, so excited to visit their Daddy.
But thankfully
too young to understand his severe suffering back then.
Right here I wish I had a picture of Bill
coaching Logan's little league, from his walker
just a month after coming home from the hospital.
And on a lighter note. I bought those 2 little red coats at a garage sale,
where I got most all my sons' clothing back then.
I'm kind of proud of that.
4 comments:
You have a beautiful perspective about such a hard time in your life. I think I’ve read in another post that your husband died during a robbery. To read that happened more than once is just heart breaking. When I read your post I can’t help but think you have answered the important call to serve others...changing those dressing, attending to your boys, and helping with all those steps to your husband’s recovery. Thank you for the encouraging words today!
Peggy in iowa
That was a horrific time back then. I don't mention it all that much because while it is not hard for me to talk about, I fear it may be hard for others to hear. And still to this day, all these years later, I feel sort of like I'm talking about someone else because surely this didn't happen in our little family, right? That old TV show back then, Rescue 911, did a segment on this and when they changed the number of bullets he took from 17 or 19 to "He was shot 5-6 times" I asked why they changed the number, and I was told by the director, "because this is a family show."
You are a sweetheart, Peggy in Iowa.
It never gets easier reading about this. What a sad, SAD story you have in your family history. But, you survived and you have a happy ending with Dennis, who is such a good man. I'm thankful for that. oh, and that is such a cute picture of Tyler and McKay.... and McKay's shoes on the wrong feet!
darlene
oh my goodness Darlene, I never noticed that before!
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