December 22 - “Afternoon Excitement”

It’s starting to get cold out there. 48 yesterday morning. Lows in the 30’s coming soon.

 

Chris took off in the morning for an 11:00 physical therapy appointment. Gotta exercise those eyeballs. I ran over to Office Depot to pick up some stickers to use for the Christmas Eve service. I also stopped at the donut shop to order the giveaway donuts for the same service. While there, the clerk was acting really flustered. She was getting the job done, but it was more than just a really busy morning (which it was).  As I held the door open (from my position in line) for a lady and her daughter as they were leaving, she chuckled and whispered to me, “That man who just left gave her a $100 bill as a tip. Kind of freaked her out.”  Ho! Ho! Ho!

 

In the afternoon, Chris started making some divinity. No, she hasn’t gone over to the dark side and gotten into the graven image business. It’s the divinity that you can eat. Good stuff. Pure sugar. While she worked on that, I went to Walmart to get some stuff like bananas. Sam likes them, too, so I have to stay stocked up.

 

Whew! Now to the afternoon excitement. I was sitting at my desk. Chris was cooking supper. I heard our next-door neighbor named Candy hollering. Not that unusual an occurrence, to be honest, so I ignored it at first. Until she hollered my name. “Mister Kelley! Mr. Kelley! Come quick. Miss Corrie fell down and hurt herself bad!”

 

“Miss Corrie” is the widow who lives next door to Corey and Janell. When I realized what Candy said, I took off running. Chris followed when she saw my blue jeans rapidly disappearing around the end of the driveway. I was the first on scene. Corrie was crying and try to catch her breath, so I asked her a few questions to get her to breathe so she would calm down. She was holding her elbow, and her face was banged up pretty badly. She had been trying to cover her plants and got tangled in some string. I convinced her not to try to get up, and to keep her arm as still as she could.

 

Chris got there within seconds and came to the same conclusion I had – her arm was probably broken.  We offered to call an ambulance, but she refused. Corey and Janell, who had arrived by then, brought over some towels and ice, and we got her cleaned up. Corrie finally let me call a friend to come take her to the emergency room. She was enough in control before she left to comment, “At least I did this before Christmas. I’ll still be able to make my Christmas cookies.” 

 

Corrie called Chris later in the evening to let us know that she had broken her arm in two places.  They were also checking out her face and head “to see if I have any brain damage.”  I think she was kidding. They did keep her overnight for observation. We’ll be praying for her.

 

John 13:35 says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

 

Father, please be with Corrie. Heal her wounds so she can get those Christmas cookies baked. Amen.