The Wood's Secret Garden

I got home from work at around 4:30 p.m. and the phone rang.  It was Leslie, the manager from the Senior Park where my mom has lived for the past 11 years.  Leslie informed me that the Fire Department was called out because a neighbor heard my mom yelling for help from inside her little house.  She had taken a fall in the office at 8:00 p.m. the night before.  Being unable to get up, she pulled herself along the carpet with her arms and finally made it to the telephone only after sustaining severe rug burns on both her arms.  She was able to pull the phone down and attempted to call 911 only to find that AT&T was having technical difficulties with their lines.  The phone was dead.  She laid in the same spot, near the front door, for almost 20 hours calling out for help.  It wasn't until 4:15 the next evening that a neighbor, who was taking her trash can to the curb, heard her cries for help. Needless to say, it took this incident to make me ...