Proud, radical adherent to chaotic acts of kindness....
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The truck was totaled. The Mexicans were unhurt.
My brother was taken by ambulance to Fulton County Medical Center. He had a shattered left wrist and a broken arm bone.
My nephews escaped injury.
My nephew Jake came and took the three back to Maryland, dropping my brother at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, where they operated on his arm, putting in pins and a plate.
As of Friday, 30 June, he was still off of work, in a lot of pain.
I talked with Luke at his brother's 4th of July party. Just prior to the events leading to the wreck, his little brother Nick had just reminded Luke to put his seat belt on; Luke did. Luke's one hand did hit the dash cupholder, and my brother made the hospital X-ray that hand. He was all right.
With his right arm, Bob braced Nick, who was in back. (The back seats only have lap belts. My brother in effect did for his son what our father had done for me in my car seat in 1963.) Nick was pelted with the drinks the three had just stopped to buy, but was unhurt.
I drove from Springfield back over to my brother's home the following Friday, 7 July: he wasn't there! I tracked him down at his work. Seems Mr. Simmons went back to work on Wednesday, 5 July. He was looking much better, and he said the arm swelled less with him moving about. But it will be a long recovery.
For irony, we ate at El Salto, our preferred Mexican restaurant in Brooklyn, MD for dinner with longtime Simmons friend David Majorowicz.
When last checking on him on Friday, 18 August, Bob still has a cast, but continues to recover. He so procrastinated in replacing his 12-year-old truck, with the allowance, but finally settled on the new version of the same model, but an automatic.
He continues to recover, but the continuing swelling has prompted the medical team to prescribe a worrisome, unorthodox treatment: shocking his arm with current.
We had dinner after work on Saturday Night, 7 October. The "cast" (wrap) is off--but the signs of nerve damage: continued swelling and hair growth--are evident on his injured limb. He continues his execises and physical therapy treatments. The original prognosis for a full recovery is now in doubt. The insurance of the other driver, a (legal) Mexican, had run out at some point.
For the first time since he was 15 years old, he will not be able to deer hunt this year. Bob is a responsible hunter.
It was all he could do to squeeze a slice of lemon into his tea at dinner. The pained expression on his face said a lot.
He did get to go goose hunting in the winter of 2006-07, and was successful.
Bob still had limited use of his left arm in the summer of 2007.
That I die is of no concern. But these people matter. Thank God for sparing them. My brother, I still hope, will at some time fully regain the use of his left arm. Thank God for that too.
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