Get By With A Little Help

To my son Tommy,

"What would you think if I sang out of tune
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends"

This is the song that played on my clock radio this morning.  Whether you attribute these lyrics to Joe Cocker or the Beatles, they are very true today.  Of course in my case today my friends are family that I relied upon and family that relied upon me.

Your Great Grandfather Leo fell again today.  It is the second time this month.  That happens when you were born in 1921 and have survive nearly 92 years.  Your Grandpa Leo can't get your great granddad off the floor alone.  He (your great granddad that is) has that large frame and good amount of heft to him and his legs don't bend.  It takes two to lift him.  So this morning at 6:50 I was woken up as I got the call to come over.

Any other day I run right out and speed up.  They make him comfortable while he is on the floor waiting, but I don't want him having to wait too long and the 20 to 30 minute drive up is already pushing the limit.  But today your mother had clinicals for her nursing degree and I was responsible for you and you are staying home from school because you are getting over your own health problems.  As I hung up the phone, my mind was all flustered.  What was I going to do?  Wake you up and take you with me I guess.  No that won't work.  My mind clearly was not as awake as it needed to be.  You weren't awake either which complicated things.  Still flustered I jumped up and ended up knocking over my clock radio and it came on to the Joe Cocker version of "Little Help From My Friends".

I was scheduled to drop you off at your other grandma's house at 8:00.  Thinking I could use a little help from my friends, I quick gave a call to their house and your Bwama immediately understood and got dressed to come down and save the day with you.  As I hung up the phone and started walking downstairs you called out to me, "I am up.  What's going on?" as if you knew something was amiss.  The funniest thing is as I grabbed you and hugged you and brought you downstairs and explained what was going on, you said to me, "Is there anything I can do to help?" which, as far as phrases you have picked up from your parents or extended family, has to be the best and cutest thing you have ever mimicked.

I made you a sandwich for later and got your clothes ready and dished out your cereal.  Bwama came down and she let me go and finished getting you fed and dressed and took you up to her house.  I sped up the road and got Great Granddad Leo off the floor using our two man system.  I set the alarm to the house remotely and headed up to work.

Things happen in this crazy world, things that are too much to deal with on your own.  If you compared it to the lyrics of the song, these moments are the sour note, the time when the world "sang out of tune".  Be it through their own fault and choices or through something out of the persons control like the natural progression of age, no one is perfect but we all "try not to sing out of key".  It is precisely at this moment that people need help the most.  We must all rely on each other and somehow, someway, we will "get by".

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo