It Begins: July 2, 2011

Yesterday at 7 a.m., the phone rang. Jarom saw the caller ID said "Fort Drum Army" and brought the phone to me. When I saw the caller ID, I thought, "This can't be good" and, indeed, it wasn't. Lt. Jindrich of Fort Drum told me that Seth had been in an accident with a buried IED while on foot patrol. He said that Seth had lost one leg at the knee and the other below the knee. He said other people would be calling me with updates and gave me his number. Sobbing, I got dressed and went out to the kitchen to tell Jarom. I was surprised when Jarom responded with relief, even gladness--until I realized that for the previous five minutes or so, he had thought Seth was dead. This relief at learning he was alive allowed him to be cheerful the rest of the day.

I received another phone call from my case worker who said someone from her office would call me every eight hours with updates, but I could call them any time I needed to. She offered to read me the entire report of Seth's injuries, but I wasn't ready to hear it, so I declined. She confirmed that I already knew the worst of it. A few minutes later, I received another phone call from the Army Travel dept asking if I had a current passport and other such questions in case they needed to send us to Germany to meet Seth.

I put Bob to work calling my family and soon my parents and my sister Margaret were there. Margaret called the requisite ward leaders and a few other people I asked her to inform. Bob worked on canceling my trip to Guatemala--I was supposed to leave July 10--and seeing if WSU and the airlines would refund my money. WSU was very generous; the airline was able to give me a credit but not a refund.

We sat around the table and talked and cried and talked and cried some more. My brother, Taylor, came as did other friends--some with food others with just hugs, but all came to "mourn with those who mourn." Several men from the neighborhood and ward showed up and started hauling away the dirt leftover from Bob's resodding lawn project.

Finally at around 4:00 p.m. we got another call from our liaison. I asked her to read me the full medical report, but it was written in technical medical terms, so she couldn't read and I couldn't understand all of it. She did say "a traumatic amputation below the left knee" but only mentioned something about the tibia and a puncture in the knee in the right leg. I thought, "Well, I'll find out the extent of his injuries soon enough," but then I thought, "No, I need to know as much as I can so I can begin to get my head around this," so I called the liaison back and asked if she could e-mail me the report. She couldn't, so I asked if I could have her read it aloud to a doctor. She said she could, so I called our neighbor Greg Gochnour, but he was out of town. His wife came by and when we told her what we needed, she was able to get a hold of my doctor Steve Scharmann. He came by about 10:30 p.m. and we called the liaison. When Steve got off the phone, he said that the tibia of Seth's right leg was fractured, he had a puncture in the right knee but the vasculature was all OK. I said, "So he's got his right leg?" "Yes."  It felt like Christmas.

We also found out that his left hand has damage to the soft tissue and one finger is fractured. His pelvis is fractured and was pinned on both sides. His personals are OK. It was all good news, but it was 11:00 p.m. so we couldn't call everyone we knew would want to know, so we called just family--and some neighbors whose lights we could see were still on. Ethan and my new daughter-in-law Jerrica sent me to bed while they cleaned up the kitchen and made popcorn for Jarom and his date who were watching a movie.Can I just say I love having a daughter-in-law?

I did not mention all the people who came by, who brought food, who came and just sat with us because it would make this entry even longer than it already is, but there were many and to them we are so grateful.