Saturday, October 6, 2012

EDIE

    As I sat down at the table next to a couple women having lunch, I noticed an attractive woman in a wheelchair. What happened to her? I wondered. When she turned around, my question was answered. Her skirt was long, almost to the floor, but no feet were under the skirt. Looking farther up, I saw no leg impressions, either. What could have happened to this lovely lady?
    A man came to take her to the front of the room where she was introduced and then taken up onto the stage. She received an achievement award for all her accomplishments.
   Her story was told. A gas furnace in the basement in the house blew up, causing the house to catch fire. Edie was asleep. The child was rescued by the firemen in time. Edie was not. She made it out alive, but she had third degree burns over seventy-five percent of her body. Her face, head, chest, and from her elbows down to her fingers were spared. Gangrene set in her legs and they had to be amputated. 
   Her husband was in the army. This was during World War II. He was in a hospital in the Philippines with a broken leg when he got the news about his wife. The Red Cross flew him home.
    

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