An Ordinary Mom's Musings

I was so excited! I’d recently moved to the Washington D.C. area to become a live-in Nanny and I had plans to ice skate with friends. This was our last hurrah before we left town to go to our respective homes for Christmas. I had never ice skated before. But I LOVED watching figure skating on TV. The gracefulness of the skaters as they glided around the rink was magical.

I picked up Erin, another Nanny, and headed to the skating rink. As we met up with the rest of our friends, I was the only one who had never skated before. Advice abounded.

“Make sure you lace up the skates extra tight, or your ankles will wobble and cause you to fall.”

“When you walk onto the ice, just walk around the side of the rink holding onto the wall. Get a feel for how it feels to be on the ice.”

I stepped onto the ice for my virginal skate and found it exhilarating! Though I was shaky and there were near falls (okay, a real falls too), I made my way around that first lap. I was figuring out how to stay upright!

Christmas music filled the air and made everything feel festive, alive and possible. Cautiously I skated near the sides of the rink, close enough so that if I got into trouble I could aim for the wall.

I was doing it!

I was skating! Skating without holding onto the wall! I was so proud of myself. Bucket list- Ice Skating- check!

It was glorious! Thrilling! Bravely I made my way towards the middle of the ice. I didn’t need the wall, I thought. My long heavy wool coat would pad me if I fell, and I was skating so well I probably wouldn’t fall.

I reached the middle of the rink.their “inn” but did anyway.

Trouble started.

I tilted to one side. No problem, I thought as I sifted my weight. As I leaned, my left leg developed a mind of its own. It twisted, I fell. And as I fell, I heard an unmistakable CRACK!

Paramedics were called, skaters stopped with words of encouragement, saying I was going to be fine. I knew better. I had heard that crack, it was broken. Shaking, not from cold (my coat was doing its job, keeping me warm), but from shock, I lay there.

My friends solicitously waited with me for the paramedics, who arrived, took one look at my leg and said, “It’s broken”. They lifted me onto a gurney, and as they moved me, the pain started. A good looking paramedic kept telling me to breathe and to grip the sides of the gurney as hard as I could when it became too much. He was afraid I would crush his hand if I held it. I was crying now, and in frank disbelief that this was happening to me.

Erin came with me to the hospital as the others left to catch their plane. We rolled into the ER, and Erin helped me as the nurses tried 23 times to find a vein before they called for someone who knew what they were doing. The full-blown shock was shaking my frame by this time, the pain intense.

The hospital admitted me for the night after the doctor came in to show me my x-rays.

“You have 3 fractures in your tibia. There’s a long spiral fracture that goes the length of the bone, up here at the top you have a butterfly fracture, and then a small little fracture down here at the bottom. You are very lucky. We can avoid surgery if you are careful. You are going to have to stay here for the next 3 days, as when you break your leg like this, we worry about people developing fat clots in their blood and it causing an embolism. We’ll leave your leg in a splint for the night and in the morning we’ll cast it once the swelling goes down.”

Morning dawned. I sat up in bed letting my leg hang off for casting. The pain that shot through me was like nothing I had ever experienced. Relief coursed through me when my leg was safely encased and I lay down again, propped up with half a dozen pillows.

It was because of Erin I survived the hospital.

When it came time to go home, it was Erin who picked me up and took me to my employer’s. It was Erin, who got me down the stairs to my room with crutches. She set me up for everything I needed, with lots of ice for the swelling before leaving, making me promise to call if I needed anything.

Around midnight, I called my boss who was asleep on the 3rd floor. I waited as long as I could but my leg was throbbing and my ice was warm water. “Could you please bring me some ice down? I am SO sorry to bother you. I’m just in so much pain.”

She wasn’t happy to be woken at midnight and this had caused her to have childcare issues for her daughter. Here I was staying in her home, eating her food and not working. I can see her side of things, I felt she was resentful and it was stressful for both of us.

When morning broke, I called Erin sobbing. “I don’t know what to do! She hates having me here and I could barely get her to bring me ice last night.”

Erin quickly took charge and showed up an hour later. She announced I was going home with her until I was better equipped to take care of myself.

“But won’t your bosses mind?”

“Nope. I’ve already talked to them and they’re fine with it.”

She packed my things, took me to their house and tucked me into the guest bed. She brought me meals, helped me bathe. (Have you ever bathed with a cast that goes from toe to hip in front of someone?) Schlepping me downstairs so I wasn’t bored and alone became her job as she did double duty of caring for her boss’s kids and me.

The family she worked for, couldn’t have been kinder in spite of my crashing their house in the middle of Hanukkah. They included me in their family, their celebrations. I was made welcome and to feel wanted.

I will never forget Erin, the family she worked for, or that Christmas. 

Jews, Mormons, and Catholics celebrating the holiday season together. The truest meaning of Christmas I've ever experienced. Shown to me by people that didn't have to make room for me. ~An Ordinary Mom Click To Tweet