At the personal request of my mother I am going to share the following tale...
In May, my grandpa fell. He scratched up his leg and ended up with a
hematoma because he is on blood thinners. A
hematoma, as far as I can tell is a huge, disgusting lump on the side of your leg which takes a very long time to recover from. I'm basically ready for med school.
As a side note: my grandpa went to the doctor after a week of sitting in bed so that he could have this bump diagnosed and the doctor refused to touch him, began pacing back and forth and then told my grandpa that it was so serious he could loose his leg or die.
My grandpa laughed. It's the kind of guy he is.
After another doctor proclaimed the leg wasn't a death sentence, we all breathed a sigh of relief and told him to keep resting.
He ignored us, naturally. That's the kind of guy he is.
As another side note: For those of you who don't know. I work from home. Currently, my grandparents home. Occasionally I waddle downstairs in the morning to grab some crackers or fruit or whatever for
breakie.
This will all come in to play later. BTW.
So, one morning my grandma comes in and notifies me that she is taking a bath and should the phone ring would I mind answering it? I advised her I would definitely answer any calls and asked what my grandpa was up to. She told me, "He's outside working on his plants, against my wishes". It's the kind of guy he is.
My grandma heads off to the bath and I head downstairs to get a cracker fix. As I am walking through the kitchen I see my grandpa, gardening. Let me paint you a little picture:
He is sitting on a little stool trimming some plants in a planter box. My grandparents backyard has a decent sized pool in it and there is a walkway around the backside of the pool which is about four feet above the waters surface. This is where the box is that my grandpa is working on.
I mosey on through the kitchen, grab my crackers and on the way back out of the kitchen I hear a splash...he'd done a back flip off the stool and into the water.
Oh my God he just had a heart attack and died. I think, whirling around and running to the screen door. I fumble with the lock and by the time I get it unlocked, I look up and see my grandpa, standing upright staring at the bottom of the pool.
He's not dead. Good start, I think as I ask, "Are you okay?"
"Yea, I'm fine, just going for a dip." He says, lifting the stool out of the water.
"Oh, so you're telling me you did this on purpose?"
"Yep, just wanted to cool off," he says diving for his hat.
"With your glasses on?" I ask as he dives for those.
"Uh-huh," he mumbles.
"Did you hurt your leg?"
"No, I'm soaking it," he says diving for his hat.
"Right, do you want me to get you a towel?" I ask.
"No,
Neen, I think I'll just drip dry," he says.
Because if you dirty a towel Grandma will know you fell in, I think to myself. "Okay," I say.
As I'm closing the door he calls out, "Hey
Neen...?"
"Yea?"
"Don't tell anyone about this okay?"
"Yea, sure." I say, slamming the door and marching up the stairs to tell my grandma what happened. She is, of course, furious. "See what happens when people go against my wishes?" and heads downstairs to call him inside.
My grandpa sits with me in the den, where I work, and keeps eyeing me, I am sure trying to tell if I've finked on him or not. My grandma makes a reference about carefulness and he tells her, "I'm the king of careful". It's the kind of guy he is.
After a short lecture from my grandma and an inspection of his leg we all moved on. I of course, spread the story about our family with vigor, encouraged by the hysterical laughs I got. It's the kind of gal I am.
When my mom heard the story she asked a question which really put the cherry right on top though.
"Hey Dad, how many times have you done that before without anyone knowing?"
"Only about three or four", he replied.
That's the kind of family we are.
