Some things I escaped, for which I am grateful.
- Losing an Eye – 1955/1965 – Numerous cuts around my eyes as a kid. My nickname in my family was ‘Stitch’.
- War/Combat – 1972/73 – Was just young enough to not be drafted during the Vietnam war.
- Injury – 1972 – Private plane landing. Tire went flat on landing, but not before we had slowed down considerably.
- Rape/Death – 1973 – Got in the car of a stranger during a severe rainstorm at LaGuardia Airport. Talked my way out of it successfully.
- Death – 1973 boat explosion – Severely burned but survived.
- Injury/Death – 1989 Loma Prieta/World Series Earthquake – Very close to the epicenter in Santa Cruz county.
- Injury/Death/Arrest – 1993 – driving while intoxicated – Stopped drinking in May of that year.
- Nasty Divorce – 2000 – First wife Kathy and I had an amicable divorce and remain good friends and supporters.
What have you escaped for which you are grateful?
Drawing and List by Marty Coleman, Publisher of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Anonymous
Past experiences of what you felt were going to be certain death or injury, do make you thankful. They also give you wonder of what God expects from you.
At the age of four, my mother, sister, age two, and I were walking to the park. A big black chow dog ran toward us. As it did, my sister climbed into my mother’s arms with the dog chasing me round and round. A boy of a race not seen in that neighborhood in 1941 drove by on a bicycle carrying a bull whip. He chased away the dog, and vanished.
Six years later, at midnight, my appendix ruptured. Not having a car, we alerted a neighbor who rushed me to the hospital, barely breathing. The operation was painful and the experience traumatic, but it ended years of pain my parents and teachers brushed off as “nerves.”
I had a tendency to fall on the playground, earning the nickname “holey Holcomb.” Little did anyone know that my sight was less than normal and I was unable to see the pits in the dirt.
Falls can be serious, as I realized through the years. There was the time I fell from a swing, hitting concrete, sustaining a bad concussion. Another time, I was knocked in the head and threw down a flight of stairs, resulting in another concussion and fifty stiches. Falls caused me to cut half of my ear off. The ER Physician was a plastic surgeon with the ability to sew the ear on to look almost normal. I have tripped over bumpers in parking lots twice. The first resulted in a broken nose. The second, a large knot the size of a large goose egg on my head, another concussion, and a broken hand. This was traumatic, as it happened in the parking lot of the church where I am the organist. Another fall resulted in shattered ribs and punctured lungs.
Surgery on my back and neck, for Spinal Stenosis was suppose to relieve the unbearable pain. After each surgery, one for my neck and one for the lower back, I didn’t awaken after surgery for four days, having to be put on a respirator and given oxygen. Once I had pneumonia.
On my fifty mile drive to work, on a snowy, icy day, the car went airborne, headed for the bridge over the Washita River. I closed my eyes and said a prayer. The car ended up on the median. Another mile down the highway, a truck had jack-knifed, blocking both lanes of traffic. There was no way in to work and an icy detour home.
God provides when we need help, be it financial or emotional, or anyway, if you ask Him. I have so much for which to be grateful.
It does indeed! Everyone is saved from a fate unknown if only they realize it. I know in me that realization makes for gratitude.
Makes you wonder what you’re being saved for, doesn’t it? 🙂