Grandma

Today has been quite a day and even though it is late I had to write about it. I've been so impressed with my family today. My Grandmother, Phyllis, is pretty much an institution for me. She is just always there, unstoppable, completely loveable and she has this wonderful tendency to say the most shocking and surprising things. Well, she's had a hard day, it started out rough and it culminated in her falling on her way back from the dining room this evening and landing square on her face. My sister Lindsey got there to find that Uncle Phil had already arrived even though his youngest son was in the hospital after he cut his hand very badly this morning doing home repairs. Uncle Phil stoically came to the rescue of his dear mother while he received updates about Marc's impending surgery from my Aunt (it turned out he severed 5 tendons, one artery and a nerve - it is a life changing injury that will take at least a year to partially recover from, thankfully he was able to be given wonderful care by skilled doctors and his prognosis is much better than it should be considering how bad the injury was.)

Anyways, they took Grandma to the hospital to find that she had broken her nose and needed three stitches. I arrived at the hospital in time to see them numb her up and stitch her up. I used to think that I was fairly tough. I don't get woozy around blood, I can handle situations. But I've got to say, watching them stick a big needle in her gums to numb her up and then seeing them put the stitches in while she squirmed a bit and seemed so uncomfortable, and seeing her blood dripping down her face, I got woozy and I kind of wanted to punch that nice doctor lady in the face. Then as she was getting ready for bed after we got her home, she found yet another injury up under her bangs near her hair line where she'd bashed her head open in the fall that nobody had noticed (we hadn't wanted to mess up her hair, it really is very pretty). So we got that cleaned up and got her more settled and Uncle Phil went to be with Marc for when he woke up from surgery. And I stayed to help her get to bed. Rubbing her feet I noticed that I got her feet. Pretty soon I noticed blood start dripping down her face after it had filled up the bandaid she had on her nose. It was because of the blood thinners she is on to protect her from having yet another stroke, she has had at least three already. It hurt me to see her hurting and bleeding. She has been thru so much. She lost four baby brothers. She lost her dear Husband to cancer and has been alone for almost 25 years. She lost a dear son. And yet she is still happy and cheerful and so funny. She is a joy to be around even when her face is bashed in and she's had a terrible day.

I hope I got more from her than just her lovely feet.