It gets better~

Hey, a good Wednesday evening to all of you out there from our part of the world, Reno County, Kansas.  The skies here are getting dark and the promise of some severe weather may surely come our way as the evening hours arrive.  Having lived here in "Tornado Alley" all of my years, I have come to expect that during the months from April onward to late summer the weather may well turn stormy.  All you can do is listen to the weather reports and head to the basement or shelter if the clouds are indeed deemed to be threatening. Tornadoes come and tornadoes go, but the spirit of the people who live in that wide swath of the U.S. more prone to funnel clouds forming than anywhere else, is not easily shaken.  I have seen many a community struck by F4 or F5 tornadoes come back and be an even greater community than they were before.  I love the Midwest!

While at school today, I was reminded of how strong and long lasting the bond between two people with similar things in common, can be.  Nearly two years ago now come this August, I broke my left arm very badly in an accident.  Numerous surgeries and 9 months of wearing long-arm casts were necessary in order to even regain partial use of my left hand and wrist.  Sometimes it was pretty miserable and a lot of the times I was just about sure that I'd die of old age, still wearing a dumb long-arm cast.  But I made it, partially due to the fact that there was a little kindergarten girl at my school who was suffering with the same predicament that I was.  Her name was Nadonna and she too had a broken arm.

Little Nadonna had busted her right arm out on the playground early in the school year and her injury required surgery just as mine had.  She became my friend that year and together we decided that we were going to get well and shed those awful "exoskeletons" that we were sentenced to .  The recuperation process wasn't going to be a whole lot of fun to endure but both of us knew that if we stuck together it would be much more bearable for both of us.  We made a habit out of taking pictures together as we went through the ordeal of trying to get our arms to heal.  It seemed to lift our spirits and as the old adage "misery loves company" goes, well we became mighty good company for one another.  Now that I look back on those photos, I have to smile.

We made it and luckily for Nadonna, she was able to shed her exoskeleton a couple of months before me.  The two of us decided to give up our charter membership in the "Lincoln Elementary Broken Arm Club" and to never return to it again.  For nearly the past year now, that plan has been working out pretty dang good, well that is until today.  I was doing some  end of the year testing with the first grade classes this morning. When I stopped in Nadonna's classroom, we caught sight of one another and with the saddest and most perplexed look on her face, she held up her left arm.  To my surprise and dismay, I saw it.  Nadonna was wearing a cast.  She had broken her arm again, this time on the playground as she played tug-of-war with a friend.  You know that little girl didn't have to say one word to me.  I knew exactly how she felt and her eyes and face sent me a message and the message was this..."Mrs. Miller, I'm very sad.  Look what I just did to my arm!"  

We visited for a while in my classroom and I reminded Nadonna that we both got through our broken arms of two years back by sticking together.  I asked her to remember that I would be right across the hallway at school and when she needed something, I would help her.  I told her the very same thing I said to her the morning I found her sitting at the breakfast table at school, struggling to get her milk carton, juice and cereal opened up one-handed.  I walked over to her, one-handed myself, and together we took care of the problem.  I whispered in her ear, "Little one, don't worry.  It gets better. "

Before she left my classroom today, we talked a little bit about her being there the day that Mike and I are married.  Since she is the "flower girl" for the occasion, we talked about what she wanted to wear and also that having of a cast would not make her unable to be in the wedding.  I said to her, "Nadonna, pretend that you have a bouquet of flowers in your two hands.  Can you do it?"  She quickly put her two hands together and her once very sad face broke into a little smile.  It sure was good to see that~having worn my own share of "sad and frowny faces" for the better part of 3 different seasons of the year in 2011, I know all too well how she feels.  It isn't fun but you CAN get through it.  

Well, just looked outside and saw the storm clouds from the south west.  Looks like a line of thunderstorms are headed this way.  Time to finish this and shut the computer down during the storm.  One week ago, snow, ice and freezing temperatures.  Today, only a few short days later, we face totally opposite conditions.  That's what I love about Kansas...you just can't predict what "Mother Nature" will throw at us.  Stay safe, stay well everyone.  Even when arms get broken, even when things look most bleak, we would do well to remember that we are all in this life together.  Good night everyone!

 
Nadonna and I in my classroom today.  I told her some day when she was an old woman just like me that she would look back on these pictures and tell her grandchildren about the time she broke both of her arms all in the span of less than two years.  She's a tough little girl, she will make it.  Surely, it DOES get better!