Arthur...Don't Fall

The last time I was in physio they said, “Arthur, don’t fall!” This was good advice and a rule I try and live by. Since my fall last May down the stairs in the middle of the night, I have been very good. I never walk in the snow and ice any more due to way too many “accidents”. I am very careful in coming down any stairs, and choose to be slow anywhere I am able, just to be sure.

Last night I needed to remove our kitchen smoke detector, and disable it, as we were going to use our broiler and we know the consequences of such an act. We have never used the broiler in this stove in the two years we’ve owned it, and this was a good night to try it as it was way too cold for barbequing outside.

Rather than get out the portable steps we have for that purpose, I found the one Rubbermaid step and used it to take down the alarm. As we ascended to stairs late in the evening I realized I had forgotten to put it back, and fearing a middle of the night disaster, I got out the step again to put the alarm back.

My wife had gone up before me, and there was only Max our dog as a silent witness. I put the stair in place, put the battery back in the holder, and started to go up the stair.

I imagine that the stair must have been on two different surfaces, the tile floor and the wood floor simultaneously, as I rose up a stair leg sort of folded under itself and I came down, from thank God not much of a height. As I tumbled down it all seemed to be in slow motion and I was aware of what was happening. I thought out how I would land, and hit on my butt cheek, my knee and my ankle and not on my head! It hurt but I rolled, and ended up on the floor with my legs over the two small stairs to our lower level family room and did no damage to me, beyond my pride.

My wife upstairs said it sounded like a bomb hit, and she immediately assumed I was down with a stroke! When she came down I was laughing in pain, but laughing just the same and trying to figure out how and if I could get up.

The words of the Physio technician came back to me loudly and clearly, “Arthur, don’t fall!”