When you get the call

Back in 1981 I got a call from my mother telling me that my brother was at the emergency room. She really didn't give me any details but when I arrived that discovered that my brother was dying. He had basically drowned. He passed away three days later. I relive those events each June with each and every year that passes. So as a parent I always fear receiving any types of calls that one of my children are in the emergency room.

So on Thursday, October 23rd I got that call. I thank God that it was not at the magnitude of that eventful call in 1981.

I was sitting at home and around 8:30 PM my cell phone rang. By the time I got to it, it stopped ringing. I saw that it was Katie so I tried to call her back. I kept getting her famous recording "Call me back." This feeling suddenly engulfed me that this call was the usual call so I became obsessed with calling her back. I kept getting the same message. I tried calling her for 30 minutes. I decided to go to bed and as I laid my head on the pillow I asked God to protect and watch over Devin and Katie. As soon as I turned out the light my cell phone rang and I saw that it was Kenny. I immediately answered and without saying hello, I said "What's wrong?" He said that they were at St. Francis that Katie had fallen at Shady Acres Pool and she had hurt her hip. The details were very vague but nothing that set off the alarm that it could be serious. I had taken two Tylenol PM's earlier but didn't think about that as I was throwing on my clothes and telling Billy what was going on as I flew out of the house.

The drive took forever. I think I took the long way there. The drive gave me plenty of time to think. I always thought that I would get a call about Devin but never Katie. Then I realized that I had taken the Tylenol PM, then I feared that I would get stopped and be charged with a DUI. So that made me slow down even more. As I pulled into the parking lot I met Zach. He explained that Katie had been swinging and had gotten really high and as she reached her peak, the chain of the swing broke and she came crashing down. He didn't know the extent of her injuries. The nurses let me go back and there sat Kenny, Katie had been taken back for x-rays. Kenny and I have not been real talkative since our divorce, not on the best of terms and here we are thrown together by circumstance. I knew the day would come were we would be forced to interact but I aways thought it would be graduation, a wedding, or the birth of our first grandchild. We both sat there quietly as we waited for Katie to return. I tried to ask questions but he really didn't know much accept what he had been through. Katie was complaining that her hip hurt and she couldn't move her left leg. In the waiting room was Dana, Zach, and Chris. There were a few other kids but I didn't know them. So as time ticked by, we sat and waited.