The best laid plans, fall apart

We had a full weekend: Pick up Nate and laundry from SAU-Magnolia. Drive my daughter to her piano lesson, an all night party on Friday and a piano festival on Saturday. Take my visiting father to Arkadelphia when we went to visit Mert, who had repeatedly asked that we come on Saturday.
As Sharon gathered up music for her lesson, the phone rang and the weekend plans began to unravel.
“Hi, Mom! This is Nate. Grandpa and Miss Ruby got me back to El Dorado, but we had to go to the emergency room.”
“What! Why?!”
“Grandpa missed a step and fell. He didn’t want to go to the hospital, but he couldn’t walk to the car alone, se we took him anyway.”
“I’ll be there,” I promised.
In the ER, the surgeon studied the x-rays. “He has broken his hip. We will do surgery to replace the hip.”
I looked at the clock. My daughter wanted to go to her friend’s birthday party.
I turned to my son, “Look. Take your laundry out of Ruby’s car and drive your sister home and to the party. I will stay here for now. Surgery will probably be tomorrow.”
My husband came, visited and drove me home. He said, “I will take the cookies to Arkadelphia and you can sit at the hospital. Nate can pick up Sharon and drive her to the festival.”
His plan unraveled Saturday morning: He woke up too sick to leave the bed. I had a husband, a father and a son all needing my attention at once.
I reassured my husband, “You will be fine. Drink plenty of fluids, stay in bed, sleep and don’t eat any solids.”
I reminded my groggy father, “No food or fluids before surgery.” He fell asleep from the painkilling drugs.
I went home, gathered up mail and munchies and went to visit Mert in Arkadelphia. We were chatting in the student center when some guy wandered through and announced, “There is a tornado watch until 6 this evening.”
We looked at each other and shrugged. We had heard that song before. We finished our visit and I drove back to the hospital and the home.
I walked in the house and Nate was on the phone with Mert. “Hey Mom. My friend and I were at the park when the tornado alarms blared. We heard a train down the river. When stuff started falling from the sky, we dove under the benches.
“You what!”
“Ahhh, it was nothing. It was only the tail winds.”
I believed him until I was cross stitching at the hospital waiting on Dad to get out of surgery and saw the TV stories about the devastation two blocks from where he had hidden under the bench.
I was still absorbing that information when the surgeon announced, “Your father has a shiny new hip and is doing fine.”
Once Dad seemed settled for the night, I went home planning to sleep.
Even that plan unraveled. Two hours later, the hospital called. “Your father is reacting to the anesthesia. You need to come and sit with him.”
I went, sat and cross stitched. The sampler was the only thing that didn’t unravel the entire weekend.


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