Have You Hugged Your Friends Today?

Friends. I am blessed with many. Today my thoughts are weighing heavily and thankfully towards one of my best friends, Sue. This morning I got a call from her and in her 'just like any other day voice' we chatted about what we've been up to lately. She asked about my Mom as she always does. I ran on about this past week's Dr's appointments with my Mom and life's trivial comings and goings. She talked about all the calves being born out there on the farm. Thirty-nine I think she said had already been born with about six more due in the next couple of days. They raise beef cattle. And no, they didn't tap the maple sugar trees this year like they usually do. Then in her soft and overly calm farm wife voice she said......"well, I got hurt last week."



Eric and Sue with Grandkids Ella and Sean


I felt my heart skip a beat. "What?" I replied. "How?" "Are you okay?"
Turns out my dear friend was cornered in a pen in the barn with a 1300 pound heifer who had a new born calf. The cow went after her, knocking her into a corner and proceeded to mall her repeatedly in the head and chest area. Sue screamed for her life and tried to get away. The cow hesitated for just a moment and Sue was able to get away and out of the pen. Eric, Sue's husband was in a nearby shop building and heard the outdoor cattle making a ruckus. He thought he better go out to see what was going on. As he came out the shop door Sue was stumbling out of the barn. (This is perhaps enough detail as you can probably imagine what someone who was just mangled by a 1300 lb animal probably looked like.
Then our conversation resumed to "Oh yes, I did spend the next night in the hospital. Pretty badly beaten, shaken,bruised, .... nothing that a few shots of morphine and a few stitches couldn't fix."
Lot's of tests and Xrays showed there was nothing broken. Physically broken.
When you've farmed all your life I guess you take these things in stride. There isn't much choice. You know you have to go back to the barn, back out to the field. The mother cows with their new babies will be waiting for you. You're probably scared out of your mind knowing what these animals can do out of instinct in the flash of a second. It gets buried, I'm sure, in the recesses of ones mind because you know the livelihood of all in your care depend on you going back out and doing your chores. Perhaps now though, not so much like any other day. The sweet smell of Spring on the farm is maybe a little sweeter. The beautiful bond between new born calf and mother is appreciated a little stronger. The miracles of life and death that are witnessed each day on a farm are given a little deeper thought.
After I hung up the phone I raced to tell Dave what had happened to Sue. The look on his face was one I've seen only a few other times when we've had calls announcing sickness or tragedy in our family. The look quickly faded as I assured him she was going to be alright. We "dodged another bullet". We didn't lose a dear friend. How close we came is only a thought to be filed quickly away and replaced by thoughts of good times we will be sharing together this Spring. Good times so precious and sweet with the sweetest and dearest of friends.