Yesterday

The girls are finally taking ownership over their space. Yesterday, they cleaned their room, made their beds, picked up Charlie’s room, put away his clothes, straightened the loft, and cleaned their bathroom – complete with matching (clean!) towels on the sink. They arranged their extra pillows on top of Makenna’s hope chest and created a “reading seat” in Makenna’s room. They were excited to show us the results.

Duly pleased with their enthusiastic and voluntary domesticity, I decided to take them to McDonald’s for lunch and some scampering and cavorting at the Playland. I didn’t mean for it to end with a call to 911.

Makenna crashed into a boy about her age/size and, as best as we can reconstruct, his elbow hit her head and glasses. She fell and did the usual crying. I stood to see better from my spot. Makenna was holding her hand to her head and when she moved it away I saw blood. Lots of blood. I grabbed a stack of napkins and put it over the spot next to her left eye. I didn't see the cut. Considering the amount of blood, I asked another mom to get a wet towel. The McD’s napkins may be adequate for greasy fingers, but they were sticking to her head and hands, and, in general, disintegrating. When she took her hand away to apply the towel I saw the cut. Looks sizable – about 1/2" long, deep, lots of blood. I called 911.

Where are we? In Marysville. McDonald’s on 36, near Walmart. Sending medic. At this point, bleeding has slowed. Medics arrive. I don’t know why, but I looked the three of them over and thought, “You guys aren’t as cute as I remember.” (The firefighters in Marysville have a reputation for being cute.) They take a look at the cut. Yea, it’s not bad, maybe needs a butterfly bandage. We can transport her if you want. Transporting her, me, and my three other kids? Not going to happen. Are we ok to get to Dublin, Children’s Close to Home? Yep.

Thanks to a quick call to the Dublin dispatchers, I talked to Steve by cell. He was standing by an overturned semi on the ramp from 33 to 270. He will meet us.

It’s peculiar the thoughts that flitter by in a crunch. At one point the lines from this month’s book club selection (The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion) ran through my mind:

Life changes fast.
Life changes in the instant.
You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.

I remember then a quick prayer. Thank you that this isn’t that bad.

In the end, this proved to be a minor incident. Makenna got 6 stitches (one internal, 5 external), ice cream, and the dinner of her choice. She swears she’ll never go to McDonald’s again.