Tuesday, January 31, 2006

not a happy post

Really, it's not. Lest I cause you any undue panic, though, S-Boogie is all right.

There is nothing worse than seeing your child choking with the blind cord around her neck. Foxy and I had a horrible scare this afternoon while we were trying to do our taxes online. Thankfully Foxy saw what was happening before it was too late, but there were a couple seconds of panic followed by a lot of crying. S-Boogie has a couple red lines on her neck where the cord was. It's interesting how in the moment all you can think of is what to do--in this case all it took was getting our fingers between the cord and her neck, then untangling it--but then you spend the next hours going over and over what could have happened. I still feel a little shaky.

I keep going back to that image of S-Boogie standing on the bed in front of the window, and that brings me back to another image. One day while Foxy and I were engaged--on the day we were going to take our announcement pictures, in fact--I went to my park attendant job in Provo. I started cleaning the bathroom, then noticed a boy standing oddly under a tree. He was hunched over and swaying back and forth. As I approached him I realized there was a jumprope around his neck, going up to a tree branch. "Hey," I said, "you shouldn't play like that." Then I saw that his feet weren't touching the ground. I ran to the nearest house, where I asked to use the phone. I couldn't bring myself to tell the 911 operator what was obvious--that he was dead--so instead I sputtered out something about a boy choking with a jumprope around his neck. The firemen and police (I don't remember an ambulance but surely there was an ambulance too) arrived shortly and I watched as they assessed the situation. They put up tarps around the boy but I noticed quite a while later that I could still see his feet hanging under the tarp. The whole time I waited there and as they interviewed me for the police report, I had this eerie feeling of having witnessed something horrible and not really feeling anything because I had no connection to it. Later when I picked Foxy J up at school and started to tell her about it is when I cried.

The pictures we took that evening were no good; we returned to take more later that week.

S-Boogie recovered from the whole thing this afternoon much quicker than Foxy or I did. Within minutes she was giggling and dancing and kissing. She reminded me matter-of-factly as I put her down for a nap that "Mommy crying," which was apparently the worst part of it all for her. It would be nice to be a toddler.

10 comments:

Christian said...

Okay. That's scary. I'm glad S-Boogie is recovered, and I hope you and Foxy are able to recover as well.

LDSwithSSA said...

Wow! I have had to deal with a "successful suicide" (horrible term) at work. I remember how hard that was, and I didn't even have to see the body. I think I would freak out to see my toddler in that kind of situation, knowing how badly it can turn out.

What helped me the most was to talk it out, to make sure I wasn't holding anything in.

Glad she's ok!

Erin aka- absent-minded secretary said...

No, that is not a happy post. It is however a testimony of how resilient kids are, and how we adults can learn from them. I hope that you and Foxy are able to sleep tonight. All three of you are in my thoughts.

AmyJane said...

A fifth grader at my school was dubbed an "accidental suicide" earlier this year when he killed himself playing the choking game in a shed at home. Apparrently, things like the kid you saw in the park are becoming more and more common.

Glad your baby is OK. I just saw a little wheel thing that rolls blind cords up high for safety while shopping the other day. Think I may have to have one before my baby is bigger.

B.G. Christensen said...

Yeah, I've seen those wheel things before. I'd have to say now that they seem like a good idea. As a cheaper solution I just tied the cord up higher than S-Boogie can reach even from the bed.

TK said...

Oh, how scary!!! I just read the post! Thank goodness, you found her when you did! I hope you are all recovered by now - I can only imagine how you must have felt!

Give each other a big hug for me.

Cricket said...

Is the cord in a loop, or is it 2 cords? If it's a loop, I would definately reccomend snipping it into 2. You can buy cheap plastic covers for the bottoms- I don't think the apt. manager would be bothered by that.

I'm glad everyone's okay!!

Th. said...

.

In the LDotFDotNY letter I made a joke about surviving that I am not 100% comfortable with--after all, survival is something we only treat as normal when, in fact, it is an aberration and eventually, normal with catch up with us.

What a thing to be mortal....

Kari said...

Yikes!!!! I'm so glad she's okay! What a shocking thing to witness--the boy in the tree. I'm sorry. Kind of throws your perspective a little.

JB said...

Holy cow. I'm glad it didn't go any worse than that. And I'm sorry about that boy in the park. That's horrible!