Wednesday, February 18, 2009

If God Will Send His Angels

My morning cuddle ritual with the children turned into the first circle of hell when I heard the shattering of glass.

LittleMan, in some freak accident, fell backwards off the side of my bed. Remember the present I framed for Hubbie? The massive shattering of glass I heard was LittleMan's back slamming into the glass sheet covering the document.

I whipped around and out of bed, and all I could repeat was Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.

LittleMan was actually bent in half. He had managed to fall butt first, and he was tightly wedged in a V-shape between the broken sheets of glass and the side of my bed. Jagged pieces the size of a hand saw started directly behind his neck and disappeared down past his pyjamas.

I couldn't control my hands or my limbs. My legs had tremors as I tried to position myself to keep him from moving. I supported his head with my left hand and tried to keep him talking. He said he was okay and instead of freaking out focused on a little puffball he called a muffin in his hand.

We sang over and over to Dvořák's New World Symphony No. 9 Thank you god, thank you god. LittleMan's okay. Thank you god, thank you god. LittleMan's okay.

All the while, I kept looking at the floor expecting to see blood pooling on the carpet. He had shattered glass all over his stomach and trapped along the neckline of his shirt.

I kept his head tilted forward to keep him from slicing his neck on the huge pieces trapped behind his back. I don't know how long it took. Time absolutely stood still. LittleBird watched over my shoulder. LittleMan never fussed. He never cried. He listened to his sister asking lots of scary questions about glass. Asking why I was being so careful. Why she couldn't pick up the chunks I was placing on the nightstand. Why I was holding LittleMan's head. Why I said he was so lucky.

I told her that LittleMan's guardian angel had done a great job. That God sends his angels to watch over us. That LittleMan's angel had taken his wings and wrapped them around his body so tight so that none of the glass would harm him.

If you can stand it, here are the photos.



LittleMan? He is fine.

LittleBird? Nonplussed as far as I can tell.

Me? I am still numb.

I haven't cried. Not yet. I can't. After working so hard to maintain my control this morning, it isn't in me to let go. I am still trapped somewhere between the horror and the gratitude.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just got to your site from somewhere. No 911? Band aids were all you needed? Wow, could have been a whole lot worse. Glad everyone is ok.

Good thinking to keep everything as is until you could get everything under control.

Anonymous said...

"between the horror and the gratitude". It seems that since I had kids, I spend most of my time there. Beautifully articulated. Glad everything's OK.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad this story had a happy ending! I was scared there for a minute or two. This sounds like something that would happen here...

Not Afraid to Use It said...

@LB: Not one scratch or fleck of blood. Not one reason for the tiniest band-aid. And all I could think of before I realized that he WAS okay was how in the world could I make it to the phone without him hurting himself more?

@Praying to Darwin: It's kind of a joyful and terrifying place to be, isn't it?

@Blue Momma: I say I don't want to live through that again, but since he was okay, I'll take any amount of stress if in the end my babies are safe.

RiverPoet said...

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! Look at the long shards of glass! Oh, I'm so glad those angels were wrapped around him, protecting him! Thank God for a happy ending to this story.

Hugs....D

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad your little guy's OK! Someone was watching over him, for sure.

Gypsy said...

Holy jeez, I'm glad he's ok!

Coal Miner's Granddaughter said...

Holy Frakking Jesus on a Pogo Stick.

I'm glad he's in one piece and I'm glad you didn't have a heart attack.

Go get some liquor. Seriously. :)

A Free Man said...

Jesus! That would scare the shit out of me. Way to maintain your composure. I'm glad that you're all OK! Little boys, huh?

Jud said...

I knew muffins had a magical, mysterious charm about them, but they are a ward against physical damage? I will now arm Little One with muffins every morning, sending her to school, play, church - wherever with them!

Seriously, though, that was surely a terrifying and horrific moment and I was delighted to hear everyone if okay.

Please have your heart checked, though, it may well be out of rhythm after that. ;)

Irrational Dad said...

well... there goes about 10 years off your life, eh? Glad everyone's ok... I've found that I'm much more sensitive to this kind of stuff since I've become a dad. I don't think I could have handled reading this post if it had gone in a different direction. I'm such a sap.

Anonymous said...

Wow, so glad it worked out. When I was 12 I had a vanity with two glass shelves. In a moment of brilliance I stood on it to reach something on my shelf, and I went through the top glass with a resounding shatter and somehow managed not to keep going. I think I terror jerked my leg out before I could I keep going. I have the look on my mothers face ingrained when she threw open the door and saw the glass, me, and figured out what happened. She was then torn between murdering me (she had nightmares of me going through and ripping open an artery in my upper leg) and of course, the gratitude that all I got was a good scare.

Kelly said...

YIKES! That's pretty scary, I'm glad everything turned out okay.