Tell Your Story Contest Winner
Richard - Dayton, TN
Unless you were there too, you would have no idea that I grew up in a magical kingdom. It was bordered on one side by Richland Creek and on the other side by Walden’s Ridge. Some days those enchanted woods would be a pirate’s island, or the wild western frontier, or Tarzan’s jungle, or the front lines of World War II, or the battlefields where the Blue and the Gray fought it out. But even magic days come to an end, and as the sun would begin to dip behind Walden’s Ridge, thoughts would turn toward home where I knew a tasty supper would be waiting. I had many aunts and uncles, none of whom were blood kin. In the South I grew up in, "uncle" and "aunt" were titles of respect one bestowed on those who were always close, to watch, to guide, and to protect. As committed as any blood relative, these "aunts" and "uncles" all had a hand in rearing me, teaching me and correcting me and instilling in me the values of my rural Tennessee home. I grew up to become fluent in three languages, served as a volunteer in the interior of Mexico as a medical translator, and a school teacher, teaching all 36 years in the same school. I have traveled the world, and have, in the words of John Keats, "many goodly states and kingdoms seen." Life has not always been easy, and my road has often been bumpy and rough, but because of the nurture and care of my wonderful hard-working parents and the many "aunts" and "uncles" who lived on the edge of my enchanted woods, I never lost sight of my purpose--to be a decent, productive person. They are all gone now, and the magical kingdom has changed, and no one builds palaces and forts in the enchanted woods any more, but mine are still there, guarded by the best of sentinels--my sweet and blessed memory.Advertisement
Hello my name is Mike Ladouceur. I am writing this to let people know that there is recovery after a traumatic injury. I was in a bad accident at a factory I was working in, it’s called Border Steel Inc. In Windsor, Ontario, Canada. I was working midnights and I went to work on Jan. 5, 1994. When I had gotten to work I found out a fellow employee had called in sick and I needed his job done to have my job done. So I had to do both jobs. It was at about 2 a.m. when I was doing the other job. I was lifting a 10-ton steel plate with the over the head crane using L-shaped clamps. I lifted the plate about waist level when one of the clamps had shot out and hit me right between the eyes and went about a half inch into my skull. It knocked me back a couple of steps and I banged the back of my head against a concrete block wall then I fell forward and banged the front of my head against the cement floor. After that had happened it put me into a coma. I was laying there in a pool of blood. There were only two other workers in the shop at that time - one at the front of the shop, he was a laborer, and one at the back of the shop, he ran the Blanchard grinder. The worker in the front of the shop had heard the steel plate fall and crash into the floor so he came to see if everything was ok. When he got to where the plate was laying on the floor he was looking around for me and couldn't see me. He walked around the steel plate and saw me lying in a pool of blood, So then, he went running to the nearest phone to call an ambulance. After the ambulance came, he led them to where I was and they picked me up. They brought me to Met Hospital but then transferred me to Hotel Dieu Hospital where I was born. I was in a coma for 32 days after the accident had happened. The case had gone to court when I was still in a coma so I didn't have any say into what had happened. After the accident happened the owner of the company had gotten rid of the steel clamps so there was no evidence of faulty clamps because they were supposed to be saftied and they were not. The owner of the company had gotten a fine for $6,000 for no evidence when I almost lost my life - my heart stopped beating for six to eight minutes. I was lucky that the doctor got it beating again.