Mom's "Trip" to Colossal Cave with Taylor

(Written by Taylor )

On October 22 Mom broke her arm after falling inside Colossal Cave. I thought I would share with you a sequence of photos around that fateful event.

The first one was taken less than an hour before Mom fell and broke her arm. We were waiting for the tour to start and I snapped this with my phone. Next to Mom are McKenzie Goodman (my daughter and Grandma's granddaughter) and Sydney Perrine (Bren's daughter, Dolores' granddaughter and Grandma's great granddaughter).

After Mom broke her arm, she was a trooper. Although in shock, she made her way back up out of the cave with some assistance from me (it's a good thing she's light!) and we sat outside waiting for the Paramedics to arrive. (It was almost an hour before they arrived. We were told someone had called 911 when they actually hadn't...so someone else called them.) She wasn't in any pain, thanks to the shock. She was chatting with everyone that walked over to check on her and amazed the crowd. Her arm didn't hurt until the Paramedic put the splint on her. By the way, taking pictures was the furthest thing from my mind. It was Mom who said to me, "Did you take any pictures?" I told her that, frankly, I hadn't even thought about it and asked her if she wanted me to. She said, "Of course!" So I did. This is one of those photos of the Paramedic putting on her splint.The third photo is just before they put her in the ambulance to take her from Vail to Tucson (St. Joseph's Hospital).The next picture is Mom in the hospital the next day before her surgery. It's still amazing to me that she didn't need a cast. Only a rod in her arm to stabilize the bone and a splint to keep the weight off of the arm. She continued to charm the hospital staff with her expressions of gratitude to them and her positive attitude.The 5th and last photo is Mom back at home after 3 days in the hospital. She didn't want to go inside her house. She simply wanted to lay down on her front porch swing in her "Garden of Eden".

As I heard time and time again...from the Colossal Cave tour guide...to the tourists who gathered around to check on her outside the cave...to the paramedics...to the staff at St. Joseph's Hospital: "You're an amazing lady".

Truer words were never said.