An Experience in Solo Living

I felt pretty good about myself in the way I had adjusted to living alone during the two years since my husband passed away. I had learned to change light bulbs using that long pole we had. I had hired help with the lawn and gotten good results. I was keeping up with bill paying and managing money pretty well. True, it had been a challenge when the battery went dead on our car, and I had to go have it tested in pouring rain. The guy told me it was bad, but that they didn’t put new ones in. I finally talked him into doing it and gave him a $20 tip. Then, since the tires needed to be replaced and the backup light wasn’t working, I had traded for a new vehicle all by myself. The shingles on my back were a challenge, also. Since I couldn’t see my back, my hairdresser took a picture with my cell phone and I decided to see the doctor.
All of those things, and more, I negotiated successfully, but I wasn’t prepared for another incident that came totally unexpectedly.
I had just returned from our Pathway retreat. Our editor, Don Hinkle, had chosen Peace Valley Ministries in St. Robert, MO, for the writers of our Missouri Baptist Newspaper. It was nice to get away and talk to other writers, but due to the dry weather, it was pretty dusty. I got home and was eager to get into the tub for a nice, long, soaking bath. Since the plants hadn’t been watered the night before, I decided to take care of them before hitting the tub.
I filled the watering can and headed for the deck. I loved that deck. I could sit and watch the boats on Tablerock Lake. I could even hear the train whistle at Silver Dollar City, and, on occasion, hear the people screaming on the roller coaster. I had locked both the dead bolt and lower lock on all doors before leaving for the retreat. When I unlocked the dead bolt, the door popped open about four inches on its own accord. “That’s funny,” I thought, knowing that I had locked both locks. I pushed the door open with my elbow and left it standing open and headed on out to water the plants. I used all the water and headed back for more. The door had closed on its own and I was locked out! Now, the second lock worked!
The deck was above a walkout basement with no way to get on it other than through the house. It was quite a distance from the ground. I stood there a moment trying to think of what to do. My cell phone and life line were inside!  Suddenly, getting in that bathtub wasn’t as important as getting off that deck!
I decided to try to rouse my neighbors. I began yelling for them, but to no avail. There was no way they could hear me. “Maybe they will walk their dogs,” I thought. I sat down to wait. I waited and waited. The road behind the house was empty. The house below ours was a vacation home and the owners came only on holidays and this was not the time for them to come. All that privacy I had enjoyed in the past didn’t seem quite as important now.
I had gone out to water the plants during the commercial of the evening news. That was about 6:15 P.M. The entire subdivision was very quiet. No one was around. The people across the street were in Chicago. It began to get dark.
It was not a good feeling when I realized that I would probably have to spend the night there. At least it had been a warm day, but I knew how damp it could get near the lake. I thought that I could break a window and get in. I checked all the screens and found one with a little slit in it. They were the kind of screens that fasten from the inside, so I knew it would have to be torn so I could get to the bottom and unlatch it. I had a sample piece of tile I had been using as a coaster on the table. I used it and tore the screen open. Success! I removed the screen. Now to break the window!
I took the 4X6 inch tile and turned it so the point would hit the window. After hitting the window with it as hard as I could four times, it was obvious that it wasn’t going to break. Then, thinking further, I realized that even if I broke the window, I wouldn’t be able to get in because there was a wooden shutter on the inside with the bed pushed up against it. My strength wouldn’t be sufficient to move the bed out of the way to get the shutter open.
“Maybe i could put a chair through the door,” I thought. On second thought, the glass might cut me and I would bleed badly. Besides if the window wouldn’t break, the door probably wouldn’t break either. That idea was no good.
Nature was beginning to remind me that the bathroom was inside the house. There was a can on the table that had contained popcorn that someone had given us at Christmas. It had served nicely to hold potting soil for repotting plants. Problem solved! Since it was dark, and no one had heard me yelling, it was pretty certain that no one would see me use it. It came in handy a few more times during the long night to follow!
The TV was still going inside the house and a couple of lights were on. I could see the TV through the window, but could not hear it. There wasn’t anything interesting on anyway. Knowing that it would go off automatically, there was no concern there. It was more interesting to look at the stars than the TV. Soon I saw a light come on in the window of our neighbor’s house. I yelled again, but to no avail. When the light went off, it was certain that no help was coming.
I pushed a chair up next to a table and gathered all the lawn cushions. I sat on one, put one on my back, stuffed one inside each arm of the chair, laid one over my legs, held one on my lap, and propped another over my shoulder and table. It was a little like an igloo! It worked pretty well until early morning when the dew began to settle. The side of the cushions facing out were wet. It’s uncertain how much actual sleep I got. Once I was awakened by a loud motor of a boat on the lake. Since the lake was down the hill a distance, I had already decided there was no help there. Only a couple of other boats had come by and they were too far away to see me. I tried to go back to sleep Several times, I would get up, walk to the window and try to see my watch using the little light available. Then I would rearrange the cushions, try to snuggle down, and go back to sleep. Finally I poked my head out, and the sun was coming up!
The reality of the situation was really settling in now. I had hoped that the man who keeps things going in our subdivision would come by in his ATV as he often worked early mornings. In my heart, I knew it wasn’t going to happen.
When my husband was alive, we used a rope as a dumb waiter. When he grilled on the lower porch, I would let things down to him so we wouldn’t have to run back and forth. That rope was still there, tied to the railing of the deck. I got it and looked at it. It was a blue rope and the blue came off on my hands. It had been there at least three years. “That rope is rotten and will never hold my weight,” I thought. I took the rope, spread it out on the deck and measured it by the sections of railing. “Maybe if I double or triple it…”
I found the center of the rope and tied it to the corner of the rail. There was a handrail that ran along the porch below that perhaps I could reach. The rope was long enough for me to bring up part of it to make it a triple strand. I estimated how much I would need to keep me from hitting the ground and still be able to reach the rail below with my foot. I tied it around my waist. I knew what I had to do. I pushed a chair up to the rail, stepped on the cushion storage box, and over the rail I went. I stepped on the edge of the deck and began to lower myself down. I hadn’t allowed enough rope for me to reach the rail below with my foot! There I was, dangling in the air, yelling for help. Still no help. I reached for the post beside me, felt around with my foot and knew that it was tangled in a wire tomato cone in a big flower pot where I had planted cucumbers. By this time, the rope had moved up under my arms. Reaching the rail was impossible. I had to get out of the rope. I managed to slip it off over my head, and got my foot on the rail below. Teetering on the rail, I saw the flower pot and decided to take a chance and step on it. I did. It turned over and down I went on the concrete porch. Yelling again for help, I waited to get my bearings. I was flat on my back. Not knowing if anything was broken, staying there for a little time seemed the wise thing to do. Finally, I sat up, scooted over to the top of the steps going down to the ground from the porch. After sitting for a while, I gingerly walked around the house to the front and punched in the code to open the garage door.
After resting a bit, I realized my glasses were gone. Neighbors up the street had told me to call them if I ever needed anything. I did. They came and found my glasses and noticed the blood on my skinned nose, probably from the glasses coming off. They were more excited than I was.
It was about a week before I got my soaking bath. I had to shower because I was too sore to get in the tub. The adventure had happened on a Friday night. On Wednesday, I went to the doctor to see if any bones were cracked. None were. Everyone laughed at me except the nurse. She said, “I am not laughing!” When the radiologist called with the x-ray results, she said, “I have a question for you. Do you have a key out there now?”
I have taken a lot of teasing. My daughter said, “My mom, the Ninja warrior!” Ricky, the man who mows the yard, calls me Spiderman. When I went for my hair appointment, my hairdresser called me her hero. She couldn’t believe that an 80 yr. old woman could do what I did. On the next hair appointment, she gave me a Superman cape she had made for me that said, “Super Pat”.
I’m not sure what God had in mind by allowing this experience. Perhaps in the future I will understand. In the meantime, I am not quite as confident about living solo. I keep my cell phone with me except when it is charging. I have a lifeline that I keep near the bathtub when I bathe. When people say, “You just never know when something may happen”, I know that means me as well as others.