Today we got one of those phone calls. The kind that usually come in the middle of the night scaring you half to death.

Apparently my dad fell, and was asking for Poe to come help him. OK, fine. So, Poe went to help. Apparently he had fallen outside while working. Badly. Seriously hit his head (blood,) arm (more blood,) knees (even more blood,) – oh and his arm hurt. Like too much. Poe decided he was going to the hospital.

And my father said yes.

Coming from a man who treats cuts that absolutely should be sutured with crazy glue, this meant it was serious.

Poe called me to let me know what was going on. Of course, I gave him the litany – ID, medical card, medications and dosages – and then made sure my mother didn’t need me there. My dad takes care of her – from food to meds to testing her blood glucose. She said she was fine and would call me if necessary. I was on kid duty, with another pickup coming and the homework. While that sounds banal while my father was on the way to the hospital, and my mother was holed up in her house, trust me when I say that disrupting the homework routine would mean that everything was NOT OK to the kids – and I didn’t want to scare them. Which was confirmed, when I explained why dad wasn’t there to Joseph. He was silent, and when I looked, big fat tears were coming down his big 9 year old face.

So. Dad had X-rays, EKG, and Cat scan. Yeah, he hit his head that hard. Knees will scab and be sore. Arm didn’t need stitches, but has a huge bandage. Head CT is all clear… Except he dislocated his shoulder. Which prompted morphine for the serious pain. of the dislocation, plus the – er – relocation? of his arm.

So, why is my husband a saint?

The man got him up, cleaned up, dressed (my dad thought he would shower first but was in too much pain), and fly zipped. Then took him to the hospital and spent the next 5 hours with him while they put him through pain, and then watched his 74-year-old father in law flirt with nurses and tell war stories on morphine.

Oh, and caught my father flipping him off on the camera phone. Which I should so post.

He then came home and told ME how grateful he is that I care about my parents so much.

Knighthood. Sir Poe. That might be his new name here.