CRABAPPLE TREES ARE HANDY

Mustering energy and a bit of courage, Bob forced his legs forward. VOIlA! His first step! Still upright!
With renewed confidence, he gathered steam for another ‘swing-through”. Success-again!
He made it look easy enough. I stood by: just as proud as a peacock. He had come such a long way.
WOOPS….as usual, thought to soon….Bob took the forward plunge with all the grace of a three legged calf. He kind of cork-screwed himself into the driveway. What was once a determined man was now a pile of blue jeans and twisted metal, blessedly, unhurt and laughing.
What is a girl supposed to do? It is not funny watching the man you love looking like a pile of medical waste.
After a while, we couldn’t take it much more so better locations were sought.
I know, I know, we are quitters, but the asphalt was hard and it was a extremely difficult to peel Bob up off the driveway on a regular basis.
What to do?
Confound the neighbors!
In the field below the house stood an old crabapple tree. The trunk was all gnarly and the limbs were large and low enough to make it the perfect climbing tree. This tree was situated so it had a beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean, Mark Island Lighthouse and lobstermen out hauling traps.
A bit to the left and down over the bank was the home of Pricilla Collins.
She was a fine lady, very sweet, and made the best tea-breads and cookies. She was also the Gladys Cravits (remember “Bewitched”) of Winter Harbor. Not much missed her watchful eye or her overly tuned ears at the general store.
I had previously pointed out her window curtains slightly pulled aside (barely eyes and nose visible) to Bob, just to let him know he had an appreciative audience.(much to his chagrin).
I explained to Bob how she was and he was better off to just ignore, because by now, it was all over town that I was your torturer . If she were alive today, I’d be in jail for hate crimes against the disabled!
We decided to that if she wanted a torturer and a show, we could and would oblige.
Due to the previously describe horror-show of putting on the leg braces,we spared her that particular spectacle but putting them on before we left the house.
It was a bit of a bumpy ride down the embankment, but with a bit of effort we were able to get near enough to the lowest bough and park the chair.
As luck (and God’s sense of humor) would have it, the bough was the perfect height for Bob to just reach up, grab it, then pull himself up. It was perfect! There he had a lovely view and could just hang from the tree. When he got tired he just had to let go and plop into the chair for a bit.
It was so great, I though about doing a theses paper on “Care-giving, Natures way!” (then thought better of it).
I left a very happy, dangling crip to get him a book and a glass of something cold and thought nothing of it!(Nor did he), but apparently Pricilla did. (although ,we didn’t know it until later in the day).