THREE RIVERS AREA — She fell headfirst into the brick wall. Dropping my purse and books on the ground, I darted toward her and yanked her up. As blood poured from her head and tears streamed down her dust-covered cheeks, I tried to examine her head wound.
“No, Mommy!” she yelled in her 3-year-old, you’re-an-idiot voice. “It’s my finger, not my head.”
Apparently, her left index finger broke her fall, and it was swelling quickly.
She loves to run. I believe when she learned to walk, she ran instead. That has caused many injuries, including this one.
Sometimes you just have those days when you wonder how things could get any worse. This had been one of them.
To be on the safe side, we grabbed an ice pack and headed to the ER. Her finger was so swollen that she couldn’t play her Leapster, so I knew it was bad.
We went though the usual ER protocol, and the most exciting moment was when she got to see her bones on the X-ray. By this time it was about 8:30, and we had not had dinner.
Since she was the injured party, I let her decide what we’d have for dinner.
“I want pancakes,” she said with bright eyes.
How could I deny her pancakes?
As she finished up her “happy face” pancake, a couple sat down in the booth behind us. I wasn’t really paying much attention to their conversation, but I did hear something about a baby. The man got up to go to the restroom, and my little one stood up in the booth and turned around and asked the woman, “Do you have a baby ?”
“Yes, I do,” the woman replied.
“Where is he?” she asked.
The woman explained that her 6-week-old son had just had a heart transplant, and he was still in the hospital. Pulling photos out of her purse just as any proud new mommy would, she showed us her sweet little newborn.
After about a 30-minute conversation, I learned that the family is moving to Little Rock in anticipation of a lifetime of regular doctor and hospital visits, and Mom had to leave her job, and Dad had to find work in the city.
Since this was an unexpected medical emergency with the baby, it left the couple financially strapped and pointed in a direction they never anticipated.
By this time, my little one had climbed over the back of our booth and was sitting with them discussing their “little angel,” but the conversation soon transcended into a more lighthearted exchange about dancing and strawberries and curly hair. Then she sang for them.
For just a few moments, she was able to allow them to think of something else and actually laugh and smile.
As I paid the ticket and got up to leave, they thanked me for allowing her to sit with them.
Pondering their situation as I buckled my injured child into her booster seat, I realized that, yes, my day could have been much worse. Thank goodness it wasn’t.
Three Rivers, Pages 54 on 07/22/2010