One misplaced garden hose. One split second. One completely unexpected journey.
Sometimes the smallest things change the course of our lives.
If someone had told me that a garden hose and a bag of mulch were about to change my life, I would have laughed.
Saturday, May 23, 2026, was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the temperature was in the mid-70s, and I was looking forward to spending the evening with eight friends, that I work closely with.
We meet once a month for dinner, and when it’s my turn to be hostess, we meet at Tasha and Kevin’s house.
The kids travel a lot and I “house sit”, so we plan around when they’re gone. That’s beside the point… but it explains where I was and why I was the only one there.
Dinner was planned for 6:00. I had ordered 2 racks of ribs with all the fixin’s, from Art’s BBQ and had picked them up at 4:30. I pulled in the garage, turned the key off, went around to the passenger side door, grabbed the sack with the coleslaw and barbecue sauce.
As I turned toward the door, my foot caught on something… a garden hose on the garage floor with an open bag of mulch sitting on top of it.
I had no idea that evening was about to take a very different turn.
The next thing I knew, I was falling. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion, yet it was over in a split second.
Barbecue sauce and coleslaw went everywhere… and so did I.
Oddly enough, my first thought wasn’t, “I’m hurt.”
“Great… what a mess. At least the ribs are still okay!”
Then the pain hit…not gradually… instantly… a solid 10 out of 10.
I realized that my left arm wasn’t working.
I lay there on the garage floor, trying to figure out what had happened and wondering how I was going to get up.
The handle of the car door was the only thing I could reach, so with my good hand, I pulled myself up. Somehow, I made it into the house, sat down at the kitchen table and waited.
A few minutes later, When the guests started showing up, there I was hunched over at the table.
Jeremy was a paramedic. He took one look at me, asked me what happened, and gently began feeling across my shoulder.
When he reached that one particular spot, I jumped.
Jeremy looked at me and quietly said… “I’m pretty sure you’ve broken your clavicle. We need to get you to the E.R.”
On the drive to the hospital all I could think about was everyone back at the house.
I hated leaving them with the mess… and having to finish setting up dinner. But I should of known, that they would be perfectly fine and were quite capable of handling everything.
And, sure enough, by the time I got home from the hospital, everything was cleaned up and everyone was gone. And wouldn’t you know it… they’d eaten every last rib!
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A few minutes later, I was in the Emergency Room. And at the time, I thought a broken clavicle was my biggest problem. I had no idea this was only the beginning.
One Last Thought…
Sometimes life doesn’t just interrupt the plan… it completely rewrites it.
That Saturday afternoon started with a dinner party and ended with a trip to the emergency room.
I’ve learned something over the last 80 years… as long as God gives me another sunrise, He isn’t finished writing my story.
And that also means if you’re here… He’s not finished with yours either.
Until next time…
— Cheryl