Our main hostess in Michigan is a woman named Mary. She's been planning this workshop expereince for her 50 colleages for well over a year; gathering locations, figuring costs, getting sponsors, planning events, gatting sponsors, coordinating schedules; for a long, long time.
Just a week or so before the "event", Mary got a phone call. Her hubby had been motorcycling with a friend on Route 66; in western Oklahoma, when trajedy sprung. The heat had buckled the pavement; and even though Gary is a motorcycle safety instruction, the morning light prevented him from seeing one of the tar warps, and he flew -- up into the air, topsy turvy with bike.
Gary landed with a leg bent behind him, broken ribs, a shattered collarbone, and multiple injuries. Due to his companion and relatively new outpost LifeFlight services, he was reached in 15 minutes and airlifted to Oklahoma City, a transport that would have taken over two hours by ambulance. Mary got the call that the leg was in some trouble; she headed to OK from her home in Michigan.
When she arrived, it was apparent that it was much worse that she'd expected. The lower leg was mangled so badly that they had to amputate it. Despite vein grafts to get blood flow into the upper leg, the veins wouldn't take; and soon the upper leg had to be amputated as well. The shoulder had to be rebuilt. The OTHER leg was discovered to have multiple breaks as well. Blood clots began in the leg and lungs. All of this just as Gary was beginning to realize the extent of his injuries...
Gary was flow home 9 days after the accident; transferred from Oklahoma City to a Grand Rapids hospital. The ambulance transport first brought him to the wrong airport; then Gary was hungry, so the ambulance driver took him through the Arby's drive-through...
Mary arrived home yesterday, well into her event. 50 people dined at her house tonight, at her insistence and with the help and support of her friends. She's had 28 hours of sleep in 11 days...
Life is fleeting; we forget how quickly we can be gone or have our lives changed dramatically...
Keep Gary and Mary in your thoughts and prayers....
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