Happy Friday Eve...or so I thought. Work at the office was fine and dandy until right after lunch I get a phone call from my dad telling me that there was a little mishap and I need to get my butt home asap to watch Mathias. For those of you that don't know, Mickey only goes to Pre-K three days a week. Then on Thursday and Friday he's with Gramma & Papa. He's also enrolled in gymnastics class these two days. Anyway, when my dad called me apparently they were all at the hospital. My mom was walking behind Mathias when he somehow managed to stop right in front of her to which she toppled over him and caused them both to fall. I know...sounds absurd, but that's what happened, more or less. Unfortunately, for Mom the fall was a little bit more painful. Trying to avoid hurting her grandson as she was slipping, she ended up face-planting onto the concrete and quite hard I might add. Dad said she actually blacked out for a few minutes and he tried hard to keep her awake so they could head to the emergency room. How scary is that?? My poor Dad.
So I rushed to meet them at home and didn't have a clue what to expect. For one, I wasn't sure if Mathias was badly hurt and two, I had no idea how significant the damage was to my mom's pretty face. The entire drive home all I kept replaying in my head was...did that
really just happen?? Did I hear my father correctly over the phone? How badly could the fall have been if it was just tripping over my son? Obviously, pretty serious if I had to go home to tend to him and Mom was in the hospital. Then again, my mom is pretty small and could get hurt from something like that more than someone of my body stature. For those that don't know my mom, she's a dainty petite little Asian woman. Personality-wise, she's tough as nails and you don't wanna mess with her. Physically however, she's a skinny fragile little thing lol.
When I did finally pull up to the house, I rush inside. I see my little guy run towards me with a big hug and from what I could tell from my quick inspection; there was barely a scratch or two on his little face. Other than that, he was running around talking and playing as he normally would. Whew. Big relief. Until of course I see my parents walk up to me. Mom was holding a giant ice pack wrapped around a towel over the entire right side of her face. Dad was standing right behind her. He looks at me and says, "Thank ya, Tiger. Thanks for coming home so quick." I just shook my head in agreement and then turned my attention to Mom. My poor mother. My poor sweet mother. She slowly lowered the ice pack and turned her face to me. I gasped. I know I put my hands up to my mouth and just stared for a min or two. I wasn't much comfort I'm sure, but I couldn't get over how painful and awful my mom's bruise looked. The best way I can describe it is to compare it to a movie. If any of you have ever seen the movie Casino where the mafia gets a hold of Joe Pesci and his brother in the end and repeatedly beat them with baseball bats...well, that about sums up how severe the damage was to the right side of my mom's face. I know...harsh description, but hey, that's how bad it was! Her cheekbone was slightly cracked which caused massive swelling all over that side of the face. Her chin was twice the size it should be and her eye...her poor eye was black and blue and completely sealed shut due to the swelling. It honestly looked like someone had attacked her. It was brutal. I felt awful. These wonderful grandparents who out of the kindness of their hearts volunteer to take their grandson to gymnastics two days out of the week just to watch him learn and grow. All the while the stupid parents are at work oblivious to their child's growth. I know, I'm being completely dramatic and dumb right now, but that's pretty much how I felt at that exact moment when I saw Mom's face. When I saw my stressed out dad lingering over her like a helpless child. When I saw Mathias try and explain to me how they had to go the hospital because Gramma fell. All these thoughts ran through my head all at once and I too felt helpless...and somewhat responsible. Every time something negative happens in my life and Mathias is involved in some way, I immediately assume it's my fault. That if I didn't go through a divorce and burden my family with the tragedy of a break-up, then my parents would have never had the obligation of helping raise my son part-time...which ultimately meant he wouldn't have fallen and my mother wouldn't have bashed her head on the concrete today. Stupid thought process? Yes. Yes I know it is. But I am a bitter woman sometimes and that is just how my thoughts flow when shit like this happens.
Standing in front of a badly bruised mother and stressed out father was not what I had envisioned my Thursday afternoon to be. I suppose that's why they call it an accident. You don't expect or plan for moments like this. Needless to say, I feel so upset that Mom is in pain and discomfort, but I know she will heal. The bruising and swelling will hopefully subside within several weeks. Poor mama. It just sucks that it happens to be right around holiday time. The one thing we
are grateful for though, is that it was her that had hit the ground and not my son. Of course I prefer if it didn't happen at all, but man am I relieved that it wasn't my son. Thank you, Lord, for sparing my little boy's face today and please please please help Mama heal soon. *sigh* Off to bed I go...
(My beautiful mother and yes, that would be me, the crazy lookin baby only a few months old.)
