…it was a beautiful late spring morning, May 25, 2006. I was 6 months pregnant with our third ( to be our first boy) and we had just moved to Montana from Arizona (a life long dream for me) less then a week earlier. Brandon had found a job right away as is usual for him. He was framing some apartments on a big job. That particular morning he was setting trusses, which is putting the roof frames on basically. Me and the girls had been sleeping in lately because of the time change and it would stay light to well after 10pm every night. We were awakened by frantic knocking on the door. It was our landlord who lived on the property next to ours. He came to tell me there had been an accident at work but Brandon was okay.
We had moved there with our little family, our 2 horses, 1 vehicle and the closest family being mine in Idaho…about a 6 hour drive from us. Brandon had taken his truck to work that morning, a 45+ mile trek into town, so the landlord took us to the hospital telling me Brandon had fallen and cut his arm but he was fine. We had no phone yet either but someone at the hospital knew our landlords and who we were, so they contacted our landlords.
We finally make it to the hospital but I really didn’t know what to expect. So I left the girls in the waiting room and went in to see my love and what was going on. I lost my breath and almost fell to the ground…his right arm was covered in gauze and bandages, he was pale and started to cry when he saw me. It was all almost too much to handle but I had 2 little precious girls waiting for me in the waiting room, waiting for me to tell them daddy would be alright. I didn’t know where those words would come from but I knew I had to be the strong one for the whole family and for the little sweet baby boy I was still carrying, though at times he felt he needed to come early.
The first few days are really still a blur to me. He had been on the second story of the apartment they were framing. Long story short, craine operator who lifts the trusses for the roof hit one off Brandon and knocked him off the wall, over 18 feet. He landed on a t-post with his right arm, nearly severing his main artery that was pulsing in the ER doc’s face when he got to the hospital. Brandon would have bled out before ever getting to the ER. Thankfully he only lost a lot of blood, some muscle tissue and a lot of skin and not his life. Those long drives home from the hospital were the worst. It happened on a Wednesday and he came home Friday after 2 surgeries, just to return on Monday for another surgery for a skin graph. I was also not comfortable driving in the city, especially a big pickup and underground parking. I truly did learn how strong I was, though for a long time and maybe still I feel it was my fault. I wanted us to move there and within 5 days Brandon was scarred for life and things would forever be changed…all so quickly. This is what he was left with
We stayed in Montana for about 4 more months. Brandon had more surgeries, physical therapy. I was at the obgyn more then I cared to be. I had started to have complications and Colton ended up being born a scheduled c-section by Brandon and I’s choice. I’d had a lot of things going on during my pregnancy and we just didn’t want to try to turn him as he was breech along with stressed. Not really the at home birth I wanted but I would have given my left arm to have a healthy baby by any means and that is what we got. A healthy 8lb 2oz baby boy born September 13th. It was a beautiful, happy day but also a sad one…we weren’t really sure if Brandon would ever be able to pick up his new baby boy or ever even play with him.
We ended up moving down to Idaho to be close to my mom through the winter and see where to go from there. We were just lost and really didn’t know what we were doing, where things were going. I had contacted a lawyer the day it happened due to the negligence of the other worker and he was working the case but it was very early in the matter and things were just up in the air. Brandon also continued his surgeries in Idaho for a total of 5 or 6 in a year...I can’t remember the exact number. He didn’t work for two years during the surgeries and p.t. but finally was able to return to some kind of work, which was limited framing with a lot of pain involved for him. It was just hard times for us. Not to mention learning how to survive the winters in Idaho with the last one we spent there being the worst/coldest in over 15 years. Frozen/broken washers, frozen pipes, -45 degree weather chasing escaped horses while the police watch at 4am, watching chickens rough the cold and snow for water and food, acquiring another beautiful horse with a painful history, buying my beautiful dream truck of a ‘97 F350 diesel 4-door family wagon and taking great trips down to Arizona to visit family and friends and making another wonderful little boy which made four precious gifts from God (though he almost didn’t make it and I was barely hangin’ on myself), milked my first goat while pregnant with issues…I guess they were hard times but also wonderful, memory making times for us. We learned how to be a strong family and enjoy what we have, though there were times we forgot and lashed out at each other and tried to push the other away. We’re just too stubborn to give up on our family, we have a good thing going.
So, fast forward almost four years since our lives changed and we are in Oklahoma. I truly enjoy it here, am glad we moved here but at times wonder what the hell we were thinking. Every since the case has been open and pending, Brandon has had family coming out of the woodworks. Though he wouldn’t admit it, they are. His mom is one. Never met the woman, never heard much about her and bam, here she is calling after 7 years of no real contact with him. And there have been others. Brandon doesn’t want to see it or admit it but it’s the real reason his dad wanted us to move here…to finance the ranch. What about my family you ask? My family is pretty much well off and doesn’t need money. I have a pretty big extended family that I never see and a very small close family which consists of my mom…lol.
Ever since moving here, things with Brandon’s step mom, dad and I has been weird at best. It really has been a twilight zone experience dealing with them. I love and get along with the rest of the family great, just Patty is nuts. I have never been treated the way I have been treated by her in my entire life and I’ve been there, done that all I thought. And Brandon the whole time has been telling’ me to not be a bitch and basically kiss her ass. Are you kidding me? That is not in my nature. I will respect you all day long and twice on Sundays but as soon as things go wonky, we have a problem. Still through all of her crap I have been pleasant and rather just leave it with “how’s the weather?” and not be hateful to each other. That just hasn’t been her plan. So, when I quit going around her and letting the kids go down there so much, she calls dhs on me and Brandon…geeesh…can’t win for losin’ for sure.
Anyhow, this all leads up to getting a check from the lawyer, four years later and having hands stuck out waiting for their share. Patty mainly is waiting for some money so she can go back to Arizona for however long she wants to stay…I’m hoping forever but who knows. The other day when we were over at their house, Patty was asking Brandon when he was getting “his” money and he said not for another week or so. Then Brandon went into the house with his dad and I followed thinking it was my opportunity to ask Sonny how much he thinks we owe his still him (though by Brandon and I’s calculations we have paid it ALL back and then some) and he tells me “$20,000 still”…I was blown away. WTF is he thinking? The only money we have ever borrowed from them was to move into the house and get the utilities put in, which equaled about $2,000. Brandon has given them almost every bit of every pay check since we moved in in July ‘09. They tell Brandon how much money they need and he gives it to them with no receipts for jack shit. Tell me who coming out smelling like a rose in this shit? Not us, that’s for sure. Then he still wants 20 grand…over my dead body!!!
So, after four years of very hard times (they got worse once in Oklahoma), and after our dreams of a money worry-free life (Brandon would have had his own business by now if the accident never happened) came to an end, we have a major dilemma of what to do about the in-laws and our money. It just doesn’t seem fair but then again, when is life ever fair? All we want to do is raise our beautiful family on our homestead, raise our own food and enjoy all the good times and embrace the harder times with confidence we can make it through anything. I know we can…
I hope I can get this post posted soon…I’ve been writing it for a few days now. Our internet could be held up for up to a month because they haven’t wired up the new tower yet…uggg I wish they would just do it already and quit fartin’ around with it. So I will probably have to go to the library and sit in the parking lot and post it…lol, FUN! I have well over 6000 emails I need to weed through but they have a lot of info I need to glean first before I can delete them…I can’t wait for my very own connection! I have never been without internet…EVER! Okay, enough boo-hooing.
O-we finally got to buy a 4-wheeler. We call them quads but around here everyone calls them 4-wheeler’s. We have been having a blast on it. Now we just need about 3 more, ha.
I guess I will go. I hope spring is well on the way for everyone and gardens are getting put in where they can right now. Brandon is plowing the garden this weekend and I plan to get it fenced and some veggies put in next week. I just love spring!!! I already planted one apple tree and have one more to plant but at this point, the goats still roam free and everything I plant has to be fenced off…it’s getting to be a major ordeal to plant anything so Frannie and the kids will be fenced off soon…but not soon enough for me but I hate fencing for sure.
...okay, I'm posting this from the wi-fi at the taco place, outside in my truck...lol!! i hope you enjoy this story, though I know I can't convey what it was truly like. I thank God for my wonderful,sometimes stupid man everyday. Take care ya'll!!
