Halloween is always a time of reflection for me. You see, when I was 10, I was hit by a car while I was trick-or-treating. I was out with my friends, Donna Gleason and Joie Paranteau. It was raining and dark and cold because back then (1979) trick-or-treat was on Halloween Night. We were getting tired, cold and wanted to get as much loot as we could so we decided to go to an apartment complex in our neighborhood. We were crossing near the corner of Douglas Ave and Carlton Blvd in my hometown of Racine, WI. We had to wait for traffic, and when we thought it was clear, we didn’t see a woman pulling out of the convenient store and onto Douglas Ave. Donna or Joie yelled to stop, but I didn’t hear or react and I ended up getting hit by the van. I was thrown 20-30 feet and came to rest on the side of the road.
Meanwhile, my 16 year old sister, Shari was home talking on the phone. I am sure she and my dad were handing out candy to the other trick-or-treaters. I know that the operator had to break into Shari’s phone call to tell them about my accident. Can you imagine how it felt for Shari to hear that news? Dad and Shari arrived at the accident scene before the ambulance left. Shari rode with me while Dad followed behind. I remember the pain and crying to Shari to help me.
At the hospital, my family was told of my injuries. I had a concussion and a really badly broken right femur. Pretty much, that was it! The concussion was serious, but the femur was the real story. In order to repair the broken bone, a pin had to be inserted through the two broken parts of the bone and then attached to traction weights while the healing occurred. I would be bed ridden in the hospital for 6 weeks. I remember on my second day in the hospital, a nurse offering to bring a game to play with me and before she could return to play with me, I fell asleep. The nurses were terrific! They would have to wheel my entire bed into the play room in order for me to be able to spend time with the other kids in the hospital. The rest of the time in the hospital is sort of a blur. I remember receiving tons of gifts and visitors. My favorite gift was a stuffed Beagle puppy that I named Mustard. Don’t ask me why, but that’s what I named him. To this day, Beagles are my favorite breed and someday I hope to own a real one. I probably won’t name it Mustard.
After 6 weeks of traction, I got put into a body cast. The cast went around my torso starting in the middle of my chest and then down my right leg all the way to the ball of my foot. Let’s just say this wasn’t a walking cast in any way! We lived in a two story house and all the bedrooms were on the second floor, so my room was set up in the living room on the hide-a-bed. I had to remain in the cast for 8 weeks. I remember how my brother, Jerry would pick me up and carry me to different places in the house. For Christmas he put me in the back seat of our station wagon, so we could go to my Aunt LaVerne’s house on Christmas Eve. He was 20 or so at the time and he was my hero. I felt special to be so well taken care of by my big brother.
That time at home must have been really difficult on my family. My dad was a single parent by then, and he worked during the day. My oldest sister, Kim had moved out of the house and worked a waitress job 2nd shift. I suspect that between Kim, Jerry, Shari and our neighbor, Bette Bowmen, I was looked out for during the day. I had an in home tutor that would come to give me my school work and I had some really great friends from school that came to visit me. They brought me a wreath made of construction paper hands from all the kids in the fifth grade. I hope that Victoria Mahl and Martha Swan know how awesome they made me feel when they painted my toe nails for me. I also had a neighbor, Chad Bongiovanni that would come visit me. Chad and our relationship is a separate blog entry for the future, but he made a huge difference in my happiness during my recovery.
Most of all, I have to thank my dad, sisters and brother for the sacrifices they made and for the time they spent caring for me. It is because of that time and the love they gave me, that I have always known love, each day of my life. My family has known a lot of hardships and through them all our love for each other has endured. Now we are spread out from one end of America to the other. Even though we are not close in proximity, we are close in our hearts.
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