Thursday, January 24, 2013

Redefining Normal

We went to dinner tonight at our favorite local diner. We decided to sit at the counter and during the meal heard a commotion behind us. A gentleman had gone to move his chair out of the way of someone passing by and had toppled off of a small step. When he got up, it was clear his fingers were broken. Maybe he had had them on the edge of the chair as he fell over in it, and they were crushed, but I'm not sure.

He was incredibly stoic. They were bent backwards and he was bleeding. I know it had to hurt. I asked if they wanted us to call 911 and his wife said she would take him but they needed to pay. I told them to just go, we'd take care of that. The restaurant just comped their food, but I didn't want them to waste any time getting some medical care.

It reminded me just how we never know what will happen at any given moment. Never.

I'm sure they were just planning on having a meal out, maybe with plans for some other errands. And the next thing they know they're on the way to the ER. Hopefully he won't have any permanent damage, but I know that must have been really painful. And not having use of his right hand for some period of time is certainly going to be difficult.

We go through our days expecting everything to be "normal." We make plans for tomorrow and next year and retirement. In reality, any moment could be the last we know before having to redefine "normal." 
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