Fall led to fascinating discovery

Thou shalt not make plans. That should have been my motto last week.
Wednesday was a beautiful day. All my outdoor projects were on schedule. The annual houseplant migration from outside to inside was well underway. I had a visit scheduled for Thursday to take Mom to a routine doctor appointment, out to lunch and then back to her house in plenty of time for the delivery of her new couch. I had intended to use the rest of Wednesday to get a birthday present for my sister-in-law, bake something special to take to Mom’s and perhaps even to finish the plant migration.
Then the phone rang.
Mom called and said she had fallen and had called the emergency squad to pick her up. They wanted to take her to the hospital but she said no. She said she was fine and could walk.
A couple of hours later I got another phone call. This time her home health aide, Paulette, was there. She said Mom couldn’t even stand up by herself. Paulette said she thought they needed to call the emergency squad back. I called her family doctor, who thankfully didn’t work on Wednesdays. The nurse there said to call 911. So I called Paulette back and told her to go ahead and call, that I would meet them at the hospital.
I hastily packed a bag and took off, fully expecting it to be a false alarm and to be back home in a matter of hours.
It was not to be.
When I got there, she was still in the emergency room. One eye was almost closed and she couldn’t move her left leg. Fearing another stroke, I took my place by her side.
After a series of inconclusive tests, she was admitted and moved upstairs. I stayed as late as I could, then headed to her house for the night. I noticed that she had a burnt out light bulb in her bathroom. In my search for a replacement, I noticed a box on the floor of the linen closet. It was full of treasures.
There were newspaper clippings galore. There was also a stack of newsletters from Delco. I soon discovered why they had been saved since 1936 and surrounding years. They contained pictures of my grandfather. He was in the habit of submitting safety suggestions. Cash prizes were given for these. In most of them he won a whopping two dollars! In at least one, he won $25 but was misidentified as Elbert Garner instead of Albert. It didn’t specify what these suggestions were.
There were advertisements for an “old-time Minstrel Show,” bowling scores, birth announcements, a note that the Delco pistol team won its first match and an article on the banning of camels on the streets of Jerusalem. That last article said there were 25,000,000 cars on American roads. There are quite a few more than that these days. It was a fascinating trip into history.
The creepy thing is that my grandfather at 36 had a striking resemblance to my family doctor today.
I actually did find the light bulbs. I slept on her couch. The next day I went back to the hospital to keep vigil. After a harrowing couple of days, Mom has been released to rehab. She is expected to go home in two or three weeks. The rehab place is just a block or so from her house and within 15 minutes of where my brothers live.
I am thankful and relieved that it wasn’t as serious as I feared. I am also thankful that I was allowed a new glimpse into the history of my beloved grandfather, even if it wasn’t how I had planned to spend my week.[[In-content Ad]]