Boudicca's Voice

Twins... 36 Years Apart

I’ve not blogged this in the four years I’ve blogged. Odd the things we just don’t tell people.

I have a couple close girlfriends down here. One of my dearest friends, a woman I absolutely adore, is 78 years old. I have never considered it odd, our age difference. Actually, I never think about it. We joke around and email and just do so many things together and I just always think of us as the same age. We even refer to each other as twins.

She called me today from the local hospital. She fell on Saturday. We don’t know exactly what happened, but she blacked out while standing in the bathroom and hit the back of her head. Her husband heard her hit and as he made his way into the hall, found her glasses flung from the room, only to find her laying in a pool of blood, a very large pool of blood.

She had me look at the size of the wound today as she’d not seen it. She called me as soon as she got out of ICU and they put her among the general populace. It’s a big gash they had to staple, probably 1.5 inches long and a good ¼ of an inch wide.

She’s weak from the blood loss so I suspect they’ll keep her a bit longer. She called me to bring her real food so I went down there tonight to take her fresh fruit. Why they don’t have fresh fruit in a hospital is beyond me. She was aghast when they tried to feed her French Toast and sausage for breakfast.

My friend is in tremendous shape and watches everything she eats.

And so tonight it was hammered home to me… and to her… that we are not the same age. I’m kind of struggling to deal with that. I know she is fine and will be going home, but for the first time today, I had to deal with her mortality.

I’m not ready for that. I just kind of expected that she’d always be here. But she won’t be. I guess I’m struggling with that still tonight.

She told the nurse she’d had today, who came in to say goodnight, “Well this is my twin. Obviously the years have been much kinder to her!”

I had to laugh.

I told her they picked a good color for those staples they used on the back of her head. They match her hair. And the room she has has a GREAT view! You can see the Trauma Hawk when it comes in. I watched it land tonight. Very cool... as long as you aren't a patient/passenger.

I’ll go tomorrow at lunch as well. I told her I’d call to see what the hospital would pass as food to serve the inmates and if she didn’t like it, I’d grab her something else and take it to her.

You know what it is going through my head the most? I can’t get past her husband finding her there. I can’t get past it to the point it is making me physically ill… to walk down the hall and to find one’s spouse of 55 years laying in a pool of blood.

I can’t get past it. That and… one day I’m going to lose her. Luckily it was not this week. It was not her time… and for that I am thankful.

And a thank you to all who emailed me to wish my sister a Happy Birthday! She said to me when I spoke to her, “You are NOT tall! And I CANNOT believe that you shorted me an INCH! I’m 5’1!!!”

I told her I write to amuse myself. I laughed when I wrote most of that post.

This comment issue with my blog has me pulling out my hair. I’m pretty done with it and have been conversing with another blogger on what to do about it. We may look into Haloscan comments.

I hate to leave my home. I like it here and I like my blog… but with blogging comes some sort of interaction and I find this very frustrating.

It’s crazy here in the House of Bou now… big stuff going on. Blogging may be light.

Then again… it may not. One never knows…

Posted by Boudicca at February 11, 2008 09:58 PM | TrackBack