Stories by Ali

One of the projects I have taken on is transferring all of my journals ~ they go back to 1977!! from the paper journals to the computer.  Yesterday I found this story I had written in April 2009 ~ it was during a time I was in therapy/healing from my past.  I hope you enjoy reading about this event in my life. 

Scariest Event in My Life

by Ali Workentin

written April 20, 2009

I was so excited and yet frustrated to be with my dad for the weekend. I was excited because it had been since Christmas since we had been together. I was frustrated because Marlene and her three kids were also going to be there and all I really wanted was some time with my dad, alone. Dad picked us upon Saturday morning and after stopping at the store for some groceries we headed out to the Pudge's where dad was living. Saturday was a typical day with my dad, with us just hanging around the place, playing and being kids.

Sunday, February 4, 1968, in the late afternoon Marlene's kids, my younger sister and I went out to play Hide-n-Go-Seek in the barn. The hay was still stacked as it had been for the Halloween Fun Night the previous October. We played in the barn till dinner. After dinner we asked my dad if we could go and play in the barn again. He said yes, just be careful. All of us kids except for Kathy trekked out to the barn, turning on the perimeter lights and started playing Hide-n-Go-Seek again. I don't remember who was IT, I just remember I was one of the kids who was supposed to hide. I remember someone beginning to count and me crawling down thru one tunnel of hay bales and then turned a corner into another tunnel. Shortly after turning down the second tunnel I felt something touch my eye and I screamed. I was just sure a spider had crawled on me. I started crying. I cried, “Go get my sister, go get my Daddy.” Eventually my sister came out to the barn to see what the ruckus was about. One of the boys told her I crawled into something or something hit me in the face. I remember just sitting in the tunnel, too scared to move, afraid that whatever had hit me in the face would hit me again. After much coaxing, I crawled out to where my sister was standing. I was holding my hand over my left eye and crying. I don't know if it was because it was hurting or because I was scared. I really don't remember it hurting.

My sister walked me back into the house. My dad asked me what was wrong. I told him a piece of baling wire had poked me from a bale of wire into my eye lid. He looked at it, put a cold rag on my face and gave me two aspirin. I laid on the couch until it was time to go home. We went home about 9:00 pm after taking Marlene and her three kids back to their house.

When we got home I told my mom what had happened. She told me to get ready for bed and go to bed. We would look at things in the morning. The next morning when I got up my whole face was swollen. My mom took one look at me and called the doctor. I could not get in till 4:15 in the afternoon. My face was all puffy and sore. Mom told me to get my blanket, pillow and some books to read and I would go to work with her for the day.

Arriving at the bowling alley, Mom told Don LaFontsee that she would be taking off work early to take me to the doctor to have my eye looked at. I went and got into one of the booths by the lanes, across from the front desk so mom could still see me. I don't remember much of the day, except for many people coming and looking at my face and commenting how swollen it was. I know that I slept quite a bit of the day too.

I remember that everything was blurry looking and I just wanted my eye to quit hurting. We got to the doctor's office and we checked in. I don't remember his name. The nurse looked into my eye with a flashlight, commenting to my mom that it was very puffy. Duh! The nurse had me get up on the table to wait for the doctor to walk into the room. The doctor was a really short and old man. When he walked in, he looked at me from afar, looked at my mom and said, “I won't touch her with a 10 foot pole. You need to take her to an eye specialist right away.”

I remember thinking “right away” ~ why wasn't it such an emergency when my mom called in that morning and told them what had happened! Back into the car we went. The sun was just going down as we drove from Rancho Cordova to Fair Oaks. We were going to see Dr. Gerber. I thought that was pretty funny since I had hurt myself at the Pudge's and they lived on Gerber Road!

We walked into Dr. Gerber's office, the nurse looked at me and ushered us right in. It was just a short time later and Dr. Gerber walked in. He asked my mom what happened. She told him I was playing in the barn with some friends and some how a piece of baling wire hit me in the eye. He walked over to where I was sitting, shined a light in my eye and turned to my mom and said, “I want her to go to the hospital immediately. We need to start treating her with antibiotics around the clock.” I thought, “the hospital ~ who is going to pay for that?” It seemed like mom muttered something about not having the money to pay for the two appointments already while we were driving to Dr. Gerber's office. Why did everything have to revolve around money or the lack there of?

I remember going to the hospital and being so afraid. Mom kept reassuring me that things were going to be okay, I would probably only be in the hospital for a couple of days. Boy was she wrong.

I was admitted and put into a bed with one other girl in the room. I don't remember what was wrong with her and I don't think she stayed the whole time I was in the hospital. I think there were two or three different girls in the hospital room with me during my stay. I remember crying a lot the first night as the nurses struggled to put eye drops in my eye, coming in and giving me shots every four hours and mom holding me down while the nurse would give me the shot. I remember screaming and crying, just stop!! It is hurting me, not helping me. Mom stayed the whole night with me. I remember hearing her on the phone to Patty to check on my two sisters.

The next morning mom stayed with me till the doctor came in. He looked at my eye, told my mom he could see some scratches on the iris and pupil and he would do his best to make it so I could see clearly again. I don't remember a whole lot during the time I was in the hospital. At first I was so sick to my stomach; I am sure it was from all the crying and fighting I did each time they tried to put the eye drops in or give me a shot. I remember being alone a lot of the time during the day as mom was working and Kathy and Joanie were at school. Mom came to the hospital every night after dinner and with me till morning. I remember crying a lot and being told not to cry, it wasn't helping anything and it definitely wasn't helping my eye to get better.

I don't remember my dad ever coming to the hospital to see me. I do remember the last day I was in the hospital a student nurse gave me my last shot ~ it hurt terribly. I had a total of 104 shots in 23 days while I was in the hospital. When I was released from the hospital, the doctor apologized to my mom, saying that he was sorry nothing could be done to get the vision back in my eye. The vision at that time was cloudy. I could see light/dark and shapes but nothing else.

Have you experienced a scary event in your life?

How did you deal with it?