New people surround me as I lay there on the ambulance gurney. They need to get me off but I want nothing of that. Sure the ER bed is bigger and more stable, but they have to move me. And I have no idea what that’s going to feel like. More questions come from the nurses, who am I, what happened, did I hit my head? I’ve answered all these at least three times tonight, pretty good at the answers now. The next in sequence is all a blur… Five or six people surround me. I can tell you it happened, but not when. They ask me if I can…

I broke my left femur on Friday, August 12, 2016. It was just a normal day. A week away from Charlie heading off to college. We wanted to spend time together and debated what to do. Fate chose Skate City. A place we had not been to for a while…. For many years, we’d spend Friday nights there. She’d get to hang with her friends, and I’d just skate, mostly minding my own business. I could skate but age tamed me. It was a challenge to move to roller blades but I did it. They were cooler than skates so yeah, I quickly picked them up. Charlie was a natural…