Dear Joanie,
We got the news today that you broke your collar bone! Truly painful, I'm sure. Welcome to the Club of Broken Bones in the Family. Here is a survey:
- Great-Great Grandmother Amy (my mother): She broke her leg when she and her husband Curt went to watch your Great-Great Aunt Karol (my sister) as she was part of a homecoming court when she was in college or high school. There was a celebration dance, probably homecoming, and Amy and Curt were so proud of Karol. But, of course, it would be way too embarrassing for them to show up at the dance. So they decided to drive to the dance and walk around the back to peek in the windows as the "royalty" of the dance were presented. They found a window to look into, and all was well until Amy stepped back and fell into a hole and broke her leg. She was in a wheelchair and cast for several weeks, and completely embarrassed about the scene she caused when the ambulance had to be called! This would be 1960-61 in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
- Great Grandmother Katie (me): Very dramatic! More than a broken bone, actually, but a broken bone it was. My mother Amy was unloading groceries from the car. I was about three years old. While she was busy with groceries, I was running back and forth, much like I see you in the pictures and videos I watch every week. Like you, I was always on the go. For some reason, who knows why, I placed my right hand in the crack of the door as I was watching Mother go back and forth. A gust of wind came up and slammed that door shut with my hand in it. I mean, slammed that door shut! My mother, your great-great grandmother (as I have said) went into action. When she opened the door, she saw that my hand was crushed and the tip of my middle finger was cut off and hanging by the skin. (I'm sorry if this is too gruesome for you to hear, but it's exactly what happened.) Amy grabbed a towel and wrapped my hand in it, along with the dangling part of my finger, and rushed me to the hospital. There, the doctors sewed my finger back on and put a cast on my hand. A really heavy cast. She rushed me home and put me to bed. Finally, she called Curt, who was at work, and broke down into tears. Amy had been in charge the whole time, and then just lost it when it was all over. I had that cast on my hand for 9 month. It was my right hand, and that is the reason that I'm left handed.This happened when I was about 4 or 5 years old, 1943 or 1944 in Spring Branch, Houston, Texas. The story became family legend.
- Coco (Your grandmother; my daughter): I was having a nice, relaxing evening watching TV. Julie had gone to bed, and Coco was at a birthday party at the local roller skating rink. Those were the days of skating rinks and whole families would rent skates and go round and round all evening long. The skating rink was a great place for a birthday party because there would be a place for cake and ice cream and also because everyone at the birthday party would wear themselves out. My relaxing evening came to a close when I got a call that Cathy (that's my name for Coco) had fallen and her arm was in pain. I bundled Julie up, picked up Coco from the rink, took her to the emergency room. You guessed it. A hairline fracture of her wrist, her arm in a cast for about 6 weeks, I think. She was the age, about 12, when broken limbs in casts were like a trophy. The casts were made of a heavy plaster and very itchy, but Coco wore it like a trophy. Her friends autographed the cast, as was the custom. This would have been about 1970 in Beaumont, Texas.
- Julie (My daughter, Coco's sister, your great aunt): Julie is your true sister in this club, because, yes, she broke her collar bone! Julie fell out of a pine tree when she was 6 or 7 years old. I always cringe when I tell this story because even though she said she was in pain, I thought she had a bad bruise, so I didn't take her to the doctor. I did ask my friends and her Grandmother Mildred, and they also all assured me that the collarbone wasn't broken because there was no bone sticking out from a break. But Julie kept saying how sore it was. She kept saying how much it hurt. I told her it would get better. But after a few days, there was a big lump on her collarbone, right where she said it was hurting. I rushed her to the doctor, and an X-Ray did, in fact, show a broken collar bone. When it broke, the bone had snapped back into place, so that's why it didn't look like a break. I know there is very little that can be done for a broken collarbone, but still! I had ignored all signs that it was something more serious than a bruise. All these 50+ years later, I still feel guilty when I tell this story. This would have been 1966 or 1967 in Beaumont, Texas.
- André (My son, Coco's brother, your great uncle): He broke almost every bone in his body from a motorcycle accident. André was in the hospital for 8 weeks and to this day has a limp because his heel was crushed and could not be rebuilt. It was a hard time, and he had to learn to walk again. We don't talk too much about it right now, though. This would have been when he was 23 years old, in the year 2000 in Boulder, Colorado.
Love, GG Katie
