An Accident

It was a beautiful Sunday morning to visit San Xavier del Bac, a mission established in 1692 on the Tohono O’odham reservation. A magnificent white building, it can be seen from miles away, and is called Dove of the Desert. Nancy and Cleo had arrived the day before and we were eager to show them some of Tucson’s wonders. Cleo and I took photos from this angle.

After a fry bread lunch at the little café in the mission plaza, we moved on to the Desert Museum. That’s when the day turned sour.  My foot tangled with a chair leg and I fell to my knees. Although one knee was skinned a bit, the real damage was to my foot, which was badly sprained.

From then on, I was confined to this shiny mechanism.

That was the down side. The up side is that Dennis, Nancy, and Cleo attended to my every need. I quickly became terribly spoiled from being waited on and furnished with a steady supply of pastries from the Mexican bakery in the Mercado.

Five days later and Nancy and Cleo have returned to Colorado, Dennis is still babying me, and my swollen foot is slowly returning to normal. The wheelchair is stowed away and I’m walking almost normally.

This accident has taught me two important lessons. One is that I am fortunate to have a loving, caring family. The other is that accidents can be avoided if I’m always conscious of what my body is doing. It’s essential to be in the moment and not wool-gathering while in motion.

Copyright 2017 by Shirley Domer