A Story

This is not a Wyatt story. Its not a Katie story. Its not even a Ben story. But its a cute one!

I'm sure you probably cannot read this newspaper article so I'll re-tell it and do my best not to completely plagiarize the original article ...

Once upon a time when my mom was just 4 years old, she was outside playing in her neighbor's yard and found a small bird that had fallen from its nest. Naturally, she went and found a shoebox to put the bird in for safe keeping while trying to figure out a way to get this bird back into its nest. She eventually convinced her father (my grandfather) that he needed to climb up into the tree and put the bird back in its home. My grandfather worked for the city electric company and climbed power poles for a living, so scaling a tree wasn't really a big deal to him. Grandaddy climbed up in the elm tree and Mom was of course right under the tree watching to make sure the bird was safely returned to the nest. Grandaddy was about 14 feet up in the tree a limb he was standing on snapped and he came tumbling down. Because Mom was standing right underneath the tree, he landed on top of her leg and of course broke it. As soon as he realized what had happened, he picked up my mom and headed to put her in the car to take her to the hospital. When he picked her up he realized that he had also broken his arm in the fall so he couldn't even drive her to the hospital! Luckily, my Grandmother was right there and able to drive both of them to get casts put on!

This story was printed in the local newspaper a few days after it happened. It comes to mind now because that same newspaper does a Memory Lane segment from time to time and re-prints articles from way back in the day. This particular article was re-printed this past summer and I just came across it earlier today. (I already knew the story but it was fun to hear it again)

Now at the risk of being too cheesy (If you know me you know that i just don't "do" feelings or emotions. Unless that emotion is pissed off. Well, nevermind.) I just have to point out how typical this is of my mom AND my grandfather -- Mom is a fixer by nature. She goes to any and every extreme to make sure others are taken care of. She isn't out rescuing birds these days but she certainly over-extends herself for family and friends. Some people are talkers and some are doers. Grandaddy is a doer - he has always been very active and loves undertaking little 'projects' .... always has been very active and looks for little 'projects' to undertake. Anyway, this story may be of little interest to anyone else but I think its fun to hear old family stories!

** I just realized that this article tells the year and my Mom's age at the time. So basically I've just announced to the tens of people who read my blog how old she is. Sorry, Mom! You're hip and with it and don't really care about these old traditions such as "never tell your age", right?!?