Renewed meaning to Father's Day

[jpl1nh]

Happy Father's day to all you dads out there! My 20 year old son was in a pretty serious motorcylce accident on Friday. He had just left work at 2PM when someone coming the opposite direction made a left turn immediatly in fornt of him. He was wearing a helmet! He hit her at about 45mph. He's really banged up, some good road rash on his right side, a lacerated liver and kidney and a badly bruised lung. Nothing broken! and no head trauma, again HE WAS WEARING A HELMET! It saved his life The lung is the most serious issue in the short term but should be okay within a couple of days as long as he doesn't develop pneumonia. He hurts all over. He is so incerdibly banged up! I've got my father's day present, he's going to be okay. That's the meaning of being a dad for me this weekend. And the lesson this reinforces to me is the difference that personal protection equipment can make. Be it helmet, chaps, goggles, whatever, it's so imprtant to use them cause you just never know when it's going to go wrong. Ironically it's motorcycle weekend up here in "live free or die" New Hampshire and we do not have helmet laws here. My son has seen a lot of doctor's and nurses this past 36 hours. Every single one of them has commented on the wisdom he showed in wearing his helmet. They all say that the vast majority of motorcycle accidents they deal with involve head trauma from not wearing a helmet. As one doctor put it, you can mend broken bones, you can repair damaged organs, stitch up cuts, you can repair most body injuries, but when there is head trauma involved there is not a lot you can do to help. And so it is with most personal protection equipment, it's there for a reason becasue it can make all the difference. Hope you all have a fathers day as good as mine is. I've got everything I could ever ask for!

 

[restorer]

May I wish you a better Fathers' Day. Sorry to hear of your son's accident. Same kind of thing stopped me riding years ago. I was lucky, brand new brakes and a look in her eyes. Nice dent in her door, a wet drivers seat and a few adjustments on the front end of my bike. I decided, people here can't see bikes or motorcycles. Hope your son gets better extra fast. Sounds like he's paying for the worst with the road rash. We find good things in all the wrong ways, don't we.

Not being a dad, I wish there was an Uncle day......

 

[keyman512us]

May I wish you a better Fathers' Day. Sorry to hear of your son's accident. Same kind of thing stopped me riding years ago. I was lucky, brand new brakes and a look in her eyes. Nice dent in her door, a wet drivers seat and a few adjustments on the front end of my bike. I decided, people here can't see bikes or motorcycles. Hope your son gets better extra fast. Sounds like he's paying for the worst with the road rash. We find good things in all the wrong ways, don't we.

Not being a dad, I wish there was an Uncle day......

JP...
I'm going to echo UncleRich's sentiments...because they closely mirror my own. Father's Day 07 I'm sure will have special meaning to you...as it also will to me but for different reasons.

"Irony has a unique way of testing us. For those of strong charachter things are viewed in a 'different light'..."

Best of hope to you JP in these trying times...

 

[webbie]

Wow - sorry to hear of the big bang-up!

I have to concur is that the world of highways is just too dangerous for regular riding on two-wheelers. Live Free or Die might be a nice saying, but someone has to take care of all the people who decided to live too freely.

My son hit a telephone pole at about 45 two years ago - car was totaled, he walked away thanks to air bags and seat belts. While everything has an element of risk, there are some where the risk vs. reward should be looked at carefully. Many of us have responsibilities to others, so we must either be careful or else have a very high insurance policy (I have the first).

In general, fathers and mothers day mean nothing to me even though I have and am both.....just my opinion. As the saying goes, every day is "fill in the blank" day!

The hard part to fathom is that your son and you were/are lucky. Even with protection, the situation could have come out worse. One time I took my 12 year old daughter skiing in VT and she had an accident.....the ski patrol thought she broke her neck. Can you imagine me bringing her home to my wife in such a situation? At that moment, I learned the true meaning of "scared the chit out of me", as I rushed for the mens room! Luckily, after X-Rays at Bennington memorial, she was OK.....but, again, just luck.

Oh, yes, we still ski - and she snowboards. But we try not to take "that last run of the day", when fatigue sets in.
Funny, yesterday I was converting old family video and ran across this....