The Grand Mother's Fall

At Home -- Third Week of March 2009:

This week started out with a "bang" -- literally! Mother fell in her room in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Grumpy was sleeping lightly and but didn't awaken with the bang, but did come conscious when he heard something immediately following, which his sleep-benumbed mind categorized as a romantic Tom cat. As it turned out, it was the Grand Mother's best attempt at a scream.

After mulling the "Tomcat" sound over in his mind and being also conscious of maybe hearing a "bump" just before that, Grumpy decided it best to go investigate. Darrell, who sleeps immediately below the Grand Mother's room, had also heard both noises; he and Grumpy arrived at the doorway to Grand Mother's room at the same time. The above photo shows the marks about 3 hours later. The three vertical reddish lines were caused by the contact with an air cleaner; the black and blue area above the right eyebrow was apparently caused by impacting the edge of the same air cleaner. Grumpy thought "this is going to look really bad in about 24 hours later!"

Ha! The next day about 32 hours after the fall, much to the amazement of both of us, it hardly looked worse! One difference, though: note the dark hemorrhage that has moved across to the inner part of her right eye. "This may be a 'doozy' by Tuesday", Grumpy thought half out loud.

"Do you want me to go with you to the Boeing Cronie lunch tomorrow looking like this?" Grand Mother asked, half teasing (maybe?!?).

"It all depends on what you are going to say about your face if someone asks," Grumpy wisely (thoughtlessly?!?) responded.

At the lunch the next day, the Grand Mother sat with her back to the glare of the windows; Grumpy noted that her face discoloration was hardly noticeable in that contrasting light. [Whew!! No embarrassing questions; no opportunity for Grumpy's typically silly (and generally unwise) answers.]

But now, some four days and 15 hours after the fall, look at what has developed!! The vertical reddish lines are nearly indiscernible with a large area of the right side of the Grand Mother's face having turned an ugly, greenish brown color. Maybe Grumpy should suggest she wear a "burqua" (Arabic: برقع‎ ) in public.

Maybe Grumpy should just learn to keep his mouth shut for a change, especially if he ever wants another of one of the Grand Mother's inimitably delectable and delicious Lemon Meringue Pies. Or, if he even wants to keep on living!!