My dad was a good man. He was one of those people who believed aspirin, Epsom Salts, Bandaids and Mercurochrome were all you ever needed, in case you were hurt or feeling under the weather. If you had those in your medicine cabinet, it was well-stocked and you were good to go.
Dad and Mama were raising six children and since we lived only a block from the hospital, we often had foster kids live with us for a short while. It was often hard to make ends meet, even with Mama working part time.
Dad decided to build one of those do-it-yourself car washes for a second income. He felt Mama should quit the part time job. She had enough to do with all of us kids plus cooking, laundry and all of the other things that make a household run smoothly.
The day the trucks arrived to deliver what he needed to build the car wash, I was living and working a couple of hours away. This is how it was told to me later when I came home.
The last delivery was a flatbed truck with a load of I-beams. Just as Daddy walked up to the back to tell the driver where to unload, a cable broke. The entire load came off the truck. Most of the I-beams went left or right and down to the ground, but one I-beam came straight out hitting Dad directly in the face, flattening his nose and lacerating his forehead and cheeks. Mama said the driver saw all the blood and fainted. When he came around, he called for an ambulance, and nervously paced until it arrived.
Our family doctor rode along in the ambulance. Daddy was obviously in shock and repeatedly told Dr. Smith, “Doc, just give me some aspirin —I’ll be alright.” Doc Smith told him he was sorry, but aspirin wouldn’t work this time. He urged Dad to get on the gurney so they could get him to the hospital.
Perturbed and in a lot of pain, Daddy said, “C’mon, Doc, I need some aspirin. How many can I take that WILL help me?”
“It would take a lethal dose to help you with this, Joe, a lethal dose.”
***
Note:
For awhile, with the swelling, stitches, and black eyes, he was unrecognizable and it broke our hearts. His face took a lot of stitches and his nose was packed with gauze for weeks to rebuild it, but he healed.
Ten years later, he had to go back to the hospital to have his nose rebroken and reset. The nose and sinuses had so much scar tissue that breathing was becoming a problem.