The fall and the phone call....

Today had a sad start to it. I opened up Kaitlyn's back pack, way too close to when we were supposed to be on the road of course, and she only had one glove in there. So I sent her out to the car to see if the missing one was in there.

She can running back in yelling that Mr. Rupert was outside and needed my help because Mrs. Rupert fell down. The Ruperts are our neighbors. They have to be in their late 70's maybe even early 80's. Art is active, golfs with Mr. Hogue a few times a week, still drives and goes down town every morning for the Prosser Old Guys daily dice game but his health has suffered some in the last few years. Maxine on the other hand hasn't been in the best shape for quite a while. She falls quite often and it has been getting more and more difficult for Art to be able to get her up.

Well this morning she woke up sometime around 4:30 to use the restroom and fell on her way. Art hurt his leg yesterday trying to get her up so he was unable to get her up this morning and because he "didn't want to bother us so early" he just brought her a pillow and some blankets and sat with her until 7:00 when he came outside to catch us leaving. I went over and together we got her up and in a chair with her walker in front of her. He was so upset though. He knew that taking care of her was something he could no longer do.

I felt horrible rushing out the door but I had to get on the road to get the kids to school. I ran back home and grabbed the their daughters phone number and called her as soon as I got the kids dropped it. I felt so horrible calling her and having to tell her that I felt she or her siblings needed to get here to help their parents. I know he would never call anyone for help but I also know that if he doesn't get help then he will end up in the hospital and there will be no one to help Max.

A few hours later my phone rang and it was their other daughter calling. For some reason she said she knew a few weeks ago that she had to put in for a leave of absence at work. She said something kept telling her she was going to need to come home to take care of things with her parents so she got everything set up with her work and has spent the last few weeks preparing. Then my call came. She left her home in Canada this morning and was driving down and should be arriving sometime later tonight.

It was so sad to see Art this morning. I could just feel his pain and I could see how helpless he was feeling. Max isn't totally with it and she kept saying, "oh this is no big deal." Art responded, "it is Maxine - something has to give, we can't do this." Tonight when I went to check on him he said he was going to make calls tomorrow about Assisted Living.

I am so glad that I was able to go over this morning to help get her up. I told Art again tonight I didn't care what time of day or night it was he needed to call us if there was a problem. But when I saw him tonight I could just see the relief on his face as he was telling me his daughter was on her way. He needed help but was too proud to ask, so I did it for him :-)

I hope when I am older I will remember this. And I hope that all of you know that I am always here and if something is needed I am just a phone call away!

Speaking of phone calls... I had the best surprise this afternoon, Sonya called me!!! For anyone that doesn't know Sonya she is one of my best friends from high school. She moved the summer after we graduated and joined the Air Force. We e-mail and myspace back and forth but it has been ages since we have actually talked on the phone. I miss her so much and it was so good to hear from her, I think she knew I needed her!

I have the weekend off. Our friends Kevin and Michelle are in Vegas so their daughter is staying tonight. On Saturday Meredith is coming for a sleep over, we are all excited. Rick is going to work on building a toy box for Trace's room. This weekend is his rooms turn for an organizational make-over. I'm thinking this isn't going to be a rest up weekend but I am so looking forward to it!