Good morning, and welcome back once more…to Miz Judi’s Kitchen!
Have you ever notice how one child doesn’t want another one to get more attention than they get? After saying this, I’d like to share a story about our two sons. Josh was 12 and Mark, or Red, as Dub calls him, was 8.
Josh, our oldest, and Mark were at the cow pens helping Dub work cows. His saddle was evidently loose, it shifted, he took a spill, somehow got his foot caught and broke it. Well Dub being a man, didn’t think it was broke, and only twisted, so he kept him down at the cow pens for about another hour after it happened…and that’s another story. I’m going to change that topic now before I go down and slap him, and he won’t even know why!
Then he saw his foot, and it was swelling. So, he called his Dad to pick Josh up and bring him to me. Mr. Bronson and I took him to the Doctor, and sure enough, if was broke.
Well, Dub felt so bad about keeping him at the cow pens, he let the sofa out and made him a bed, out in the living room where we could watch him, and Josh could watch T.V. Dub was waiting on him hand and foot. I think the boy could have asked him for anything, those two weeks and he would have done it for him.
Now Mark was taking all of this in, seeing how Dub was doing everything for Josh.
So, about a week later Dub and I were at work, when we got a phone call from Mark’s school. He had fallen off the monkey bars and was at the hospital, and was telling the Doctor he had no feeling from his neck down! We lived about 20 miles from town and that was the longest ride I’d ever made.
When we got there they had Mark in a neck brace, and had him strapped down so he couldn’t move! We walked in and saw him, and it scared us to death! He looked so helpless laying there!
I asked him, “Son, how do you feel?” He replied, weakly, “I can’t feel nothing from my waist down!” Well, my heart almost quit beating, and I looked at Dub, and he was a pale as a ghost.
A minute later Dub said, “I thought they told us on the way up here the Doctor said he couldn’t move from his neck down, but Mark just said he couldn’t move from his waist down.” I looked at him and said, “How can you ask such a thing at a time like this, h…, Josh is just getting over a broken foot you thought he didn’t have! That was the last I heard out of Dub for a while! But looking back now, he was already putting the pieces of this puzzle together! To all our readers, honestly, you just had to know Mark!
Well, they were in the process of developing the x-rays and just a short time later, here came the Doctor. The Doctor came in and said the x-rays are showing nothing wrong with anything, but Mark was still insisting he had no feeling from the waist down. The Doctor told us to take him home, and bring him back the next day if he was no better.
So Dub took him out to the car after they’d gingerly placed Mark in a wheelchair. All the way home we keep asking him if any feeling had come back, and every time the answer was no.
When we got home Dub did the same thing he’d done for Josh. He made him a bed on the sofa, and tried to make him nice and comfortable.
We were two worried people talking about how we could make him feel better, and just praying his feeling would return! He then began to ask for this and that, and Dub and I were literally jumping through hoops trying to make him feel better! This went on for about 2 hours, after we got him home.
He’d been telling us both, that when they’d put him on the stretcher at school, then loaded him into the ambulance, all his little friends were all around, telling him he’d be okay, and that they’d be sure to call and check on him later.
As I’d said, we’d been home about 2 hours at this point and then…the phone rang! That little sucker jumped up, and hollered, “I’ve got it!”
Dub and I looked up at him and he realized what he’d just pulled about the time he was reaching that phone! I hollered at him, “What do you think you’re doing Mister,” and he knew right then, the cat was outta’ the bag!
I said,“ Do you have any idea how bad you scared us?” I’ll never forget what he told us.
He said he’d seen Dub waiting on Josh, and I thought he could wait on me too, it looked like fun. At the time money was hard to come by, and even though we had insurance, the ambulance ride cost us $500.00. This wasn’t something to sneeze at!
He didn’t get his tail tore up over that one…but he had one coming shortly thereafter!
It wasn’t a month later, we get another phone call! Marks at the hospital again, this time about halfway home on the school bus, the driver had to call 911! It seems Mark started hyperventilating on the bus, so here comes, the ambulance and hauls him back to the hospital. Another $500.00 ambulance ride!
We got that boy home this time, me telling him the whole way home what he was getting. Two times now we’d been scared half outta’ our minds by this child and his antics!
I promise you, once we did hit that door at the house, I tore his little tail up, but good. Dub told him, “Red, if I EVER get another $500.00 bill over another bogus ambulance ride, you better go ahead and call you another one, because I promise, you’ll be, needin’ it!”
We talk about this and a have laughed and laughed over it, but I can tell you, it wasn’t funny at the time! But you know what? Something tells me he might have one just like him with Miss Shelby Lynn, and let’s see how funny it’ll be to him then!
I hope you enjoyed this memory, and maybe it brought one back to you! If so please share it with us, we’d love to hear it!
Till next time keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart.
May God bless each and every one of you!
Deb