"Papa donna be awight?"

I thought of not posting about this at all... but thought again this morning.. and decided to.  I'm sure I'll have references to the events from the last week in future posts, so I'll just get it over with. (Throat clearing) and the story begins...

As mentioned in my last post, our first niece on this side of the family was born in the wee hours on Sunday morning.  We all loaded up and headed to Madison, WI to meet the little peanut. After lots of holding and squeezing baby Emma and visiting with the new parents and grandparents, we headed for home.  (Madison is about a three hour jaunt from our home fyi). We were well over two hours into the trip home, when we got the call from Ben's brother... their parents had been in an accident.  OH GOD.

We turned around and starting heading back towards Madison to a town about an hour from where we currently were. That's where the ambulances were headed. Ben's brother had received a a call from a truck driver informing him of the accident - how scary of a call is that. Many frantic phone calls followed as we made our way back to the hospital, arriving at the same time as the second ambulance - which was inching along at the pace of a snail... not good. We unloaded all the half-sleeping kids and headed into the emergency waiting room to find out what was going on. 

The state trooper who was at the scene met with us to explain what had happened. Ben's mom had been driving on a 4-lane highway (speed limit of 65mph), when a truck pulled out right in front of her trying to cross both lanes. He said she probably didn't even have time to say "OH SH**" before she T-boned the truck. He said her wheels were turned as if to avoid the collision, but there just wasn't time to do anything. He told us the side airbags deployed (not front!!!), and the seat belts saved their lives. He also said the rescue crew cut the roof off her SUV to extract Gordy and then basically 'threw' the roof back on top and strapped it down before hauling it away.  He then handed Ben an address of where the vehicle was taken in case there were items inside that needed to be retrieved.  The doctors wouldn't let anybody back to his parents, so Ben and Casey headed to the vehicle while I prepared make-shift cozy spots in front of the TV for the kids.

It just so happened I had found an animated Christmas special on TV (Grandma got run over by a reindeer), and the kids had been pretty absorbed in it rather than the words of the state trooper.  SO I THOUGHT.  After I returned to my seat, Will looked at me, serious as a judge, and said "Grandma got run over by a Dodge truck". I just sat there looking back at him... and then giggled.  He started giggling too.  A confused giggle... and I immediately said "Will that's not funny".  He reminded me that I was the one who started chuckling.. which I was. We both smiled and acknowledged that it did in fact sound funny when it came out, hugged, and turned our attention back to the somber situation. *sigh* 

After they got the go-ahead, Ben, Casey and their brother, Jim, took turns heading back to see their parents.  I wasn't allowed and neither were the kids. The reports coming back were all the same - lots of pain, both alert, not sure what's going on. Eventually Ben came out to tell me they were air lifting Gordy to Madison due to a neck injury. My heart sank.  Ben reiterated that it was mostly for precaution -- this small hospital wasn't equipped to properly care for a patient with a neck injury.  OK.  Shortly after, the nurse came out to ask if the kids would like to watch the helicopter.  UM NO!!!!   Yeah, helicopters are cool, but not when injured Grandpa is inside!!! Duh.

After Gordy was safely away, we were finally able to go back and see Grandma. She was pretty beat up. She had broken ribs and had broken a bone in her face, so the swelling and bruising was very bad. Jacob kept repeating "Gamma has a back face?", yep she sure did.  I'm sure it hurt like hell, but she did a great job of putting on a brave facade for the boys. Ugh. 

In the morning, we learned that Becky would be in the hospital for a couple more days, Gordy as well with a fractured vertebrae in the neck and a shattered wrist - wrist surgery pending... and let's not forget sister Betsy at a THRID hospital recovering from a c-section birth...  Where to go first?  We headed to Madison first to check on Grandpa, which was a little alarming for the kids.  He was in much worse shape than Grandma,very groggy from the medication, and the big hard neck brace was a little scary.  Will worried aloud that Grandpa's neck might be longer when he got out.  :)  We visited briefly and then headed back to see Grandma before trekking home. (This started as a day trip, remember? No clothes or supplies, Ben had critical work meetings to attend, and oh yeah - what about school?) 

Did I mention there was a blizzard coming too? By the time we got home on Monday, school was already cancelled for Tuesday. We ended up BURIED here with about 16 inches of snow. No school Wednesday or Thursday either - with roads completely covered and unsafe for travel. Marvelous! Thankfully, Ben's brother lives near Madison and was able to make the rounds between patients for the family.  Betsy's husband was also able to pitch in with the visiting, since their hospital was near Gordy's. THANKS CASE, JILL AND RYAN.

Becky was released yesterday from the hospital, and is slowly on the mend. Gordy will be getting out of surgery in an hour or so, and soon everyone will be heading home. It's been a wild week, with a LOT of stress, but I'm so thankful everyone is going to be okay in time. We will be heading out again this afternoon to help where we can. The kids are very anxious to see Grandma and Grandpa again!!!