Today, I phoned my mom to ask her if she could pick me up from school tomorrow instead of having my boyfriend drive me home (he has to be somewhere important tomorrow). In the midst of my mom telling me that she would be there to bring me home, the land line on my mom's end started to ring. It was my Nonna, of course it was, but this time she was not calling to report new family gossip or ask what my mom was up to. My Nonna called my mom at home today to inform her that my Nonno had fallen off a ladder in the garage.
Apparently, my Nonno went to the garage to fix something or do something (this part is still unclear). When the time kept ticking, my Nonna made her way over to the garage to see what my Nonno was doing. When she opened the side garage door, she found my Nonno lying on the concrete floor covered in blood. My Nonna is a frail lady with awful arthritis but a big heart. I can only begin to imagine her reaction when she saw my Nonno lying there, helpless.
Initially, all I heard from my end of the phone were screams, gasps, and "Oh no's!" coming from my mom. Of course I froze all over when I heard this. My initial thought was obviously the worst, that someone had passed away but my mom returned to our conversation and told me what had happened and that she would call me back.
I was in the midst of editing an assignment due for my class tomorrow but could not get the image of my grandfather lying on the concrete floor out of my head. To say the least, I was freaking out.
When the clock continued to tick and my mom didn't call me back, I tried calling the house phone. It was busy. That either meant that my mom was on the phone with my Nonna still or that she forgot to hang up. I tried her cell phone, but there was no answer. Finally she phoned me back and told me that she was on the phone with the paramedics.
You see, my Nonna and Nonno do not speak very good English. I mean, they can make their way around throwing Italian words in here and there, but fluent English to someone new is hard for them. My mom was basically being the translator between my grandparents and the paramedics.
Anyways, the paramedics were going to take my grandparents to Mount Sinai Hospital in downtown Toronto and my mom was to meet them there.
I went to class shortly after, under the impression that at the hospital my Nonno wouldn't have to wait very long in the Emergency Room because he arrived with an ambulances, but after class I was proved otherwise. At around 8:15 this evening, my Nonno had just entered a private Emergency Room and was still waiting for the doctor. The nurse that saw him beforehand had said that he may need stitches but all that she could do was change the bandages. Toronto needs more hosptials and more doctors! There aren't enough to go around.
I have been texting my mom throughout the night. She informed me that my Nonno is in a lot of pain. My Nonno asked my mom to ask me why I wasn't asleep yet and when I said it was because I was worried, my mom instantly called me and handed the phone over to my Nonno. I thought I was going to cry. I have this trigger in me that automatically makes me cry when I hear the voice of a person in pain. I got teary, for I knew that if I cried at that moment my Nonno would feel guilty for falling. Not that it is his fault at all, it is just the way he thinks.
I asked how he was. He said "Oh, fine. Just a lot of pain and I'm still alive." "Oh, fine," is how he answers every question. The last bit, though, made me want to choke. Then I asked what had happened and he said, "I donno. I just put the bushel on the shelf and I fell off the ladder." His voice was cracking quite a lot and I could almost hear the pain coming through the phone. At the end of our conversation he made the "Mwa" kissing noise like he always does after we speak and I did it in return. It made me smile that throughout all of this, my 80-year-old grandfather was still, somehow, in high spirits.
My Nonno then passed the phone over to my Nonna who simply said "I think we gonna go home tomorrow morning." I responded, "That's okay." And she said, "'Long as everything is okay." At this point my mom came back on the phone and told me to get some rest. Instead of doing that, I started writing a blog post about the events of this evening.
I really hope my Nonno is okay. He is an emotionally strong being but his body is aging and any break or fall could cause him serious damage. Hopefully, all he needs are a few stitches and some good pain killers.
I'm sure you know how it feels to hear someone you love is sick or hurt. It sucks. It really, truthfully sucks. If only this world was pain free...
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