"Tell them I broke my flippin leg!"... and other bedside stories

Hi all. Guest blogger Kate is online today, sub'ing in for the teacher when she's absent. By now, a few have you may have read the hidden comments buried under Glinda's last blog entry, where both Diane and I quickly jumped in to let you all know what happened to our teacher extraordi-Mare.. But if you're not yet 'in the know', then take heart - I'll update you now, licketysplit.

Which is precisely how it happened -- or at least how fast. Actually, when I asked her to paint the picture for me, Mare recounted it as happening "faster than the light turning green, and the horn behind you honking..." So what are we recounting? A broken femur; suffered after merely watching the bird feeder get filled after a day out and about with Flo (or rather, "grandma with the butterfly" is how she's known to MY kids.), and then simply attempting to turn around and walk back into the house.

"Ding-ding-ding, in THIS corner, introducing the teacher from Auburn, AAA drivers ed guru and hospital volunteer... our champion, Glinda!" ..."And in that corner, our underdog and challenger ......MUD." Really? Seriously?? Well, with all the snow, sleet, rain -- the ground was wet, a tiny mud puddle rested right near Flo's wheelchair ramp...Marianne's foot hit it JUST RIGHT, and twisted LEFT, and that was that. Not a car accident, no major drama, no really incredible story. Just a simple 'why oh Lord did you have to go and do that' slip and fall. If He could just turn it back 3 seconds; but no. Instead, you turn the wrong way (or in this case, she did), and CRACK. And that was that. Down she went. Oh, and she heard it too - that nauseating, sick-to-your-stomach-just-thinkin-about-it noise... oh, my heart just sank for her as she told the story; thinking about the fact that she had to hear that depressing and aggravating break-noise -- and suddenly for Mare ...the whole of time shifted, like a train switching from one track to the other with the engineer's simple flip-switch lever.

So... Marianne's in the hospital. Surgery was successful, although "you wouldn't want to be standing next to me in a lightning storm" she says. Pins and rods there to stay (airport security will now be REALLY aggravating). She'll be inpatient likely until Monday; and then moving on to Rehab for another couple weeks after that (... I hear in my head now Amy Winehouse..."They tried to make me go to rehab; I said 'no, no, no'...). Between the family, friends, those wonderful nurses and aides -- and all the well-wishes you're already sending on -- Florence will be just fine, so don't fret about her. And; so will Aunt Mare, ultimately (frankly, this might just be God's way of forcing her to sit down a take a ... break.) ugh ;-)

Glad I got to write in for a day. Diane or Jeremy - feel free to jump in with more info! If I have more updates from Glinda for you all - I'll put them up; though I'm not nearly as eloquent as my American Teacher Idol (she kicks my butt regularly on facebook's Scrabulous). Aunt Mare and I are kindred spirits and (we say) "generational twins"... Now let's just hope I don't go and break MY leg in some bizarre sympathy twist!! LOL.

Best to all of you!! Warmly, Kate (that's all of us, when I visited with the kids in December.)