We are so enjoying our monthly zoom meetings with all of our family. Each family member prepares to answer a specific question about one of their parents. We all participate in answering. The idea is that each person interviews their parent, finding out the history. This time our question was to tell about an injury one of their parents had. It was such a great meeting, with even the little ones doing a great job. Even little William got into it. He was sitting on his dad's lap. As his dad told the story about his dad, he thought it was his turn. He chattered through the whole thing. At one point, he put his hands on his cheeks and said, "It was so scary!" So cute.
As we got on the zoom meeting, we had a spontaneous music recital. Several of the grandkids played the piano and Gabbi played her cello. That was so fun and really helped break the ice.
Bria told about when her mom, Kristen, broke her arm on the bars at East elementary school during recess. She did a cherry drop from the top, but landed on her arm rather than her feet. Ouch!
Nathan told how his mom, Kristen, cut her thumb while making tostadas for the family. She was smashing black beans in the food processor. The beans got stuck on the blades. In trying to remove them, she severely cut her thumb. (Jared shared gruesome pictures.) She had to go have her thumb sewn back together. Nathan ended by saying, "We did not have tostadas that night."
Gabriella shared about when Michelle sprained her ankle when she was dancing as a senior. She enlisted the help of her brother to tell it quite dramatically with a "Dun, dun, dun" at the end. So cute.
Caleb started by joking that his mom didn't have nearly enough kids to tell about all of Shonna's injuries. Oh how right he is! He told about how Shonna broke her ankle by stepping in a post hole (they were preparing to put up a fence and had the holes dug) when the neighbor's dog got loose and Shonna was helping to chase him in the dark.
Jake told about how his dad, Jared dislocated his shoulder as a young man. He was skateboarding and some girls came to watch. He was showing off and tried to do a half pipe and fell, dislocating his shoulder. The girls just walked away, unimpressed.
Lily also told about one of her mom's injuries. She badly stubbed a toe and thought it was broken. It took a long time to heal.
Jaron also told about his mom's, Michelle's toe injury. It was while she was in labor with William. She was on the phone with the school secretary, trying to find out the kids' teachers for the new school year. She rammed her toe into the kitchen island, but had to keep her composure because she was on the phone. It really hurt. The next day, she gave birth to William. After coming home from the hospital, the toe kept getting worse. They went to emergency care and had it x-rayed and found it was broken. It was a long time healing and wearing a boot. She went to two different foot doctors over the next several months, trying to get it healed.
Audrey told about an injury her mom, Kristen had that I only barely remember. She was scoot skating in the park near our home when she was about a sixth grader. She went down a hill and crashed. She got a huge scrape on her thigh. She said I dug dirt and gravel out of the wound.
Hannah was darling telling about an accident her dad had last summer. He was riding his bike to work. As he went around a roundabout, a huge truck didn't see him and forced him off the road. It was raining. He badly injured his wrist. His keys were in his pocket and caused injury to his thigh. His pants were ruined. When he got to work, he called Shonna to bring him a new pair of pants. She did and he went on working the rest of the day with an injured hand. The next day he drove to Ogden, I think, where his friend works as a hand specialist. Luckily, it wasn't broken, but badly sprained. He wore a splint for weeks. That's a little tough for a dentist, but nothing stops Blake. And he never complains.
Kenny was also so cute telling about his dad's, Brian's, injury as a youth. He was in charge of a young men activity. They were trying to open a pinata and it got stuck. Brian climbed a ladder to unhook the rope from the basketball standard. He said as he climbed, "No one swing now." But one of the kids didn't listen and swung, knocking Brian's front tooth out. Luckily, an endodontist was there and knew just what to do. He stuck the tooth back in and later fixed it for him. He went to the hospital, too, but I didn't get why? Stitches? Probably.
Speaking of adorable, Sammy told about his dad's very recent accident. That little Sammy just lights up when he talks. Anyway, Jared has been finishing their basement. He was doing something and tried to step from wall to ladder and missed the rung and fell hard. It made a loud noise. Sammy heard it and called down from upstairs, "What was that?" "I fell." "Okay," said Sammy and went on with his play.
Gabe beautifully told about a car accident his mom, Shonna, had while he was in her tummy. Another car ran a stop sign. Shonna tried to honk and right then the air bag deployed ,badly injuring her wrist. It tore a ligament and Shonna was months trying to heal that wrist. It still isn't normal. Like I said, too bad Shonna doesn't have nine or ten more children to tell all of her injuries.
William, with help of Brian, told about a time when Brian was at scout camp in the winter. He fell face first on the ice and chipped, you guessed it, another front tooth.
Lissy is a little young to tell stories, but she looked very cute sitting in her dad's lap.
Kristen told about the time, when I was five-years-old, I cut my lip. The neighbor kids and I were playing out back where we were adding on to our house. The construction workers had left planks and nails and mess. There were planks leaning against the new deck. The neighbors and I were climbing the planks, when my neighbor, Billy Baulding lost his balance and fell on me, causing me to fall to the ground. I landed on a nail poking up from a piece of wood. I had many stitches in my upper lip and a large scar ever since.
Jared told us a story about an injury his dad had in South Africa. He was cooking hot dogs on an army gas stove. The stove tipped, spilling boiling water on his dad's foot. It was a terrible injury and his dad was on crutches for a long time.
Blake told about his dad. His dad has amazing stamina and energy. He served his mission in Spain and always wanted to return to Spain to hike the famous Camino de Santiago trail. It is over 500 miles, ending where the apostle James was buried. He and a friend from Spain embarked on this remarkable adventure. About fourteen days in, Mark developed a terrible blister and horrible shin splints. He visited a doctor who advised resting for five days. He still had 70 miles to go and was determined to finish. His friend, because of time constraints, went on without him. Mark, after resting for five days, limped the rest of the way, completing his quest.
Shonna told about the horrible day when her dad crushed his knee playing ward softball. Ken was playing left field and went full steam to catch a long foul ball. He realized too late that he was going to hit the chain link fence. He injured his shoulder, but his knee was the bad injury. It caught the cement wall under the fence, shattering his knee cap. He had surgery the next day.
Michelle also told about her dad's crushed knee. Both remembered being so scared and praying hard for their dad.
Brian won the worst injury prize, telling about his father's most traumatic injury. This happened when Brian and Michelle lived in Virginia. Gary, Cynthia, and their two kids still at home were pulling the boat to Flaming Gorge to go water skiing. Gary was driving. They were in a terrible accident. The boat pulled the vehicle off the road and they rolled. The vehicle's roof was crushed, breaking Gary's neck. The others were not badly injured. Gary knew his neck was broken. The car was completely crushed and he couldn't open the door. The engine was soon engulfed in flames. Cynthia somehow got Gary out. They got him to one location, then feared it was too close to the fire and had to move him again with that broken neck. He was conscious and able to move. He just held onto his neck and head as he moved. It is a miracle that he was not paralyzed. He had surgeries and is doing fine now. Brian showed pictures of the accident. Both the boat and car were crushed and burned beyond recognition. How they survived is nothing short of a miracle.
I told about injuries of both of my parents:
Dad: Once when we went camping, my dad was splitting wood for the fire. He had the piece of wood on a stump and had his foot up by it. He swung the axe and missed the wood and buried the axe in his foot. My memory is of him screaming and hopping around the campsite in pain.
Mom: When Joan and I were older, the ward developed a ward ladies' softball team. Mom wanted to play with her daughters and joined the team. When we were playing, she fell and broke her arm badly. She was in a cast for a long time and it was a great trial to her.
Ken told about how his dad lost an eye as a young boy, playing with a rubber band gun. He lived the rest of his life with just one eye. Ken got quite emotional as he explained how the loss of that eye prevented the army from sending Grandpa to the front lines during WWII. He was, instead, a bomb loader on an island near Japan. Ken also told how his life was miraculously spared when an incoming plane lost control and was coming right for him on the runway. It veered off at the last second, sparing Grandpa's life.
After all the wonderful reports, I asked if any of the grandkids would like to tell about a time they were injured.
Nathan told about when he was a little boy and visiting us here in St. George. He fell and cut his head on our coffee table, requiring stitches. I chimed in, telling how fun it was to take that little guy to the instacare here. He was so cute, telling stories to the nurses and doctor. He had them all chuckling. Nathan was an adorable, gregarious, talkative little guy.
Hannah has had a very traumatic year, breaking bones twice. She wanted to tell about those times. The first was her broken elbow. She and Lily and Gabe were playing ballet (Oh, she told this so well) downstairs. Lily and Gabe both leapt from the child-sized table without incident. But when Hannah leaped, she fell, breaking her wrist. She was in a purple cast for quite a while. Then, just after she got out of her cast, she broke her ankle. She and her siblings were playing a game on the trampoline and she landed wrong, breaking her ankle. They had a babysitter at the time. Hannah spent the rest of the day on the couch in pain, waiting for her parents to get home.
She has recovered from both injuries and is trying to stay injury-free. She and her mom!
So there you have it, a report of our family zoom meeting on injuries.
No comments:
Post a Comment