The more we do, the easier it gets?

29 years ago today my first husband, Bill, was shot up 
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:

Anonymous said...

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

Grandma Honey said...

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.

Anonymous said...

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

Grandma Honey said...

oh my goodness Darlene, I never noticed that before!

Look what happened last night

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