Grandfathers, prayers & broken hips

When I was contemplating accepting this new job and moving away I had one reservation- being away from my family in the event that someone falls ill. It only took two months for it to happen.

Tuesday afternoon my grandfather went out to clear the driveway- because that is what stubborn 80 year old men do. He managed to successfully clear the driveway and put the snowblower away and so he then went and started a fire in the wood stove in his basement garage. Apparently some time after getting the fire started he fell on the concrete floor of the garage, he figures it was around about 4:30pm. He decided that he wasn't going to spend the night on the floor, so my hypertensive, diabetic grandfather pulled himself across the basement floor to get to the stairs. Along the way he became thirsty, so incredibly thirsty that he stopped at the snow blower he just put away to scoop what snow he could off of it so that he could let it melt in his mouth to drink the water. He eventually made it to the stairs and hitched himself up the stairs on his butt one step at a time with a broken hip. He finally made it upstairs to the phone to call my mother at 9:30pm to ask her to send my father to go over and help him get up into a chair because he just couldn't get up.

Of course, my mother went over to see what was going on and called an ambulance and so my friends and colleagues and former coworkers responded and got him packaged up and transported to the hospital where he was admitted. I'm not sure of the official diagnosis, but I know that they put off his surgery due to his blood chemistry being off kilter and last night at midnight I got a voicemail from my mom saying that they're going to transfer him today to a tertiary care facility to perform the surgery.

It just breaks my heart that he fell and crawled across his basement floor and was so thirsty that he had to stop to lick snow off the side of the snowblower and that he had to crawl up the stairs and be alone for over five hours during all of this. I knew something like this would happen and that I would kick myself for moving away. I know that this accident has nothing to do with me moving away and that it would have happened either way, but it just sucks being 800 miles away. If you could, it would be much appreciated if you could make contact with the deity of your choice say a little prayer for my grandfather that he may come through this.