The Cutest Family

This is the true account of when I broke my ankle back in the Summer of ‘07, as was related by me shortly thereafter in an email I sent to my family (I was hoping for some sympathy and attention; however, it didn’t get me either).

Last Thursday evening (8/2/07) Nicole, Jacob, and I went out to play in the torrential downpour that flooded so many places here in the valley.  If you recall (unless you were in Pennsylvania), there was lightning striking every few seconds (at least in Herriman) in that storm.  We were having a ball.  We jumped on the tramp and then we went out and played in the gutters.  It was great to be a kid again!

After playing in the gutters we came back into the backyard and I wanted to show them how cool I am by doing some awesome back flips (as I have done often).  Anyway, to make a long story short, I came down wrong on the tramp and – SNAP!

I say unto you, my family, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains.  Nicole asked, “Daddy, are you okay?”  Through my tears that combined with the rain I exerted all my energy to utter the response, “No, hurry and get mommy.”  Quickly, as if they were angels from on High, Jacob and Nicole ran into the house to alert their mother of the tragedy that had befallen their father, leaving him at the brink of death.

With legs rendered useless and in awesome agony I laid there waiting for Jill to come and save me.  One minute passed and then two, then three, and so on.  Where was she?  I waited and waited for her, just hoping that she would come before the lightning found me as its next victim or before hypothermia crept up upon me and wrapped her dark, cold chains around my slow, beating heart.

After what appeared to me to be an eternity of anguish, I thought I saw in the distance a shadow slowly approaching closer to me through the rain.  It was her!  And it only took her 30 minutes!  Shortly thereafter, as saviors upon Mount Zion, my neighbors came to my aid and carried me in out of the rain.  I was alive!  I was given another chance at life!

I am not bitter about Jill leaving me out there for so long.  Instead, I look at the fact that the cup is still half full. I am grateful that she didn’t wait 31 minutes – because if it would have been but one minute longer, my neighbors would have been carrying in a lifeless body out of the rain instead.

I am grateful to be alive!