When one falls

Gosh, that tumble shook me up.  The external injuries - the wrist, elbow and humongous bruise on my thigh - are practically healed but, oh boy, does my poor old body hurt.  Even my brain is suffering.  The doc thinks I have a mild concussion from the jolting as I hit the ground.  So just smile and be patient if I make even less sense than usual.  I've always thought of myself as a tough old bird but it seems I'm getting soft in my old age.

And you want to know the worst, the very, very worst  bit?  Almost overnight I've become less confident.  I've always been quite proud of being pretty fearless when it comes to facing life, I've never been concerned about living alone either here in New Zealand where there are few things to fear or when I lived alone in the bush in North Queensland where the snakes could be life threatening if you accidentally tangled with them.  If anyone has any tips on how I regain that confidence, please let me know.  I do no want to become risk averse from fear.  Neither do I want to fall again.

I was lucky this time, there was someone else around which isn't usual most of the time I am at the lodge.  I was walking and turning to wave goodbye to someone when I tripped, otherwise no-one would have known I'd fallen.  I would have been OK even if no-one had been there but it was nice to have a gentle, caring soul come to my assistance and render first aid, a trained first-aider no less.  Thank you, Nicky.

When I was living in Nth Queensland, as mentioned above, I fell off a ladder while trimming trees overhanging the driveway to the house.  I broke a couple of ribs and was so knocked about I couldn't get to my feet.  The fall happened about 4 o'clock on a Saturday and I figured if I didn't turn up for work on the Monday the boss would ask the man who lived out past my place to call in to see if I was OK.  I wouldn't starve to death in that time, it was summer so not cold at night, I was in the shade so the sun shouldn't hurt me too much, I'd survive.  It was a terrible night laying there, the night noises of creatures moving around was really scarey.  I even imagined that creepy crawlies crawled over me.  I tried over and over to crawl towards the house but just couldn't do it.  

Then luck was on my side.  The neighbour's driveway was on the other side of the trees I was trimming and they were in the habit of shutting their roadside gate.  Their house was quite some distance away.  Early Sunday morning they drove down the drive to go to church and heard me calling out when the wife got out of the car to open the gate.  The gate was about 50 metres from where I was, and if there had been traffic on the road, they would not have heard me.  Believe me, I was awfully glad to see them and didn't give a toss that I had grass and twigs in my hair, dirty clothes or anything else when they helped me into the A & E Dept at the hospital.  The lovely couple came back after their church service (and no doubt many prayers on my behalf) and took me home again after I'd been patched up.  I still have one rib that hasn't been broken at one time or another.  I guess ribs are my Achilles' heel.

I'm managing to move around enough to look after, Lexis, my 4 year old great-granddaughter for a few hours yesterday and today.  Her company does me the world of good.  Although I wasn't quite so impressed with her when I was awakened at 5 am by my alarm clock ringing - and it wasn't on my bedside table.  She loves dress ups and always chooses the same things.  First she gets my little red handbag, then she puts in it a silver sparkly necklace, a little coin purse and my little alarm clock.  She knows where to find these things, I don't have to help any more.  Then comes my blue sun hat, a yellow scarf and a pair of my shoes. 

So you know where this is going, right?  

When she tidied up she put the purse back on the stand, the alarm was wrapped in the scarf still in the purse which was zipped close and some distance from my bed.  My sleepy befuddled brain just could not figure out what that faint beeping noise was or where it was coming from.  So tidying up in future will include putting everything back to where it belongs.