Short Flight

The sky was blue and the wind was not blowing. We had our day planned out. My Loving Spouse was going to go flying in his Powered Parachute and then we would finish the bathroom floor and install the toilet and sink.

The beautiful new floor was going in fairly well. We’d selected the floor the easy way by copying our friends. In fact we went to the store, had them look up my BGF’s account and ordered the exact thing.

At the last moment, My Loving Spouse said, ‘Would you like to go flying with me?’

“You know, I think I would.” I was excited to finally get a chance to fly over our countryside seeing everything from above.

‘Okay, I will have to pick you up in the big stubble field as it is long enough to take off with two people there. I will fly over and pick you up.’

I drove to the stubble wheat field and waited.

He landed in it and then we turned the plane around.

Our runway is nice and long.

The pilot goes over the pre-flight instructions, where to keep my hands and to make sure my tray table is ‘latched and in the upright position.’

We take off down the field. The parachute fills out over us, but takes some time to lift us off. Unfortunately, a gust of wind comes up and catches the parachute, turning us off course toward the incline of an irrigation ditch. There was not enough space to stop the plane, so My Loving Spouse increased his efforts to lift off. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time. We went up the incline, but then the nose of the plane dug into the other side of the ditch flipping the plane over and slamming us down on our side. It was scary, quick and violent all at once and then painful.

I could see a broken bar on the plane and hear My Loving Spouse. He wanted me to get up as gasoline was dripping on me. My back hurt. At his urging, I crawled out of the plane and lay in the field. I wasn’t quiet, the pain in my back was too intense and I think I was in shock realizing that we’d crashed. As I lay in the field I could see parts of what was left of the propeller and hunks of grass caught in one of the wheels above my head.

My Loving Spouse was gratefully much more stable and went to fetch the car.

The ER was mercifully swift, delivering my pain medication (that could possibly be the eighth wonder of the world.) I still wasn’t moving or going anywhere, but at least I stopped being ‘that creepy old lady in room 8 who was moaning loudly’.

The Nurse asked how high I could fly in a Powered Parachute and I said, “Apparently, not higher than the ditch.”

The CAT Scan showed a fractured vertebrate, which accounted for the pain. Lots of good news. No surgery, no internal problems and everything still worked. We just needed time and patience.

Once we are all safely home, My Loving Spouse gets the toilet hooked up in our bathroom again, as my ability to run through the house to the second bathroom is no more.

Running through my mind is Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always…”

We have much to be grateful for and we know it…

and we are blessed.