Over The Edge

Sheree

Mom was hanging clothes on the line. Sheree and I were in the kitchen close to the back door. Sheree, in her walker, had not quite mastered it yet. She would go up on her toes and when she came back down flat on her feet it caused her to go backward instead of forward .

Sheree, Billy, and me

The back door wasn't latched. I watched in amusement, from the perspective of a three year old, as she kept trying to go forward only to be cast backward across the kitchen floor toward the back door. When she reached the unlatched door and tried to go forward the walker easily rolled over the threshold and slid down the slightly sloping porch. The last thing I saw was her eyes as big as saucers as she realized she was falling. She slid over the edge of the porch, down the steps, and out of sight. The entire scene was straight out of a comic strip and brought peels of laughter from me. My mother came through the door carrying Sheree in a panic. Still laughing, I remember saying, "Oh, Mom, you should have seen her eyes. It was so funny!" Sheree lived through the ordeal, my mother survived it, and I hold the memory that still brings a bit of humor whenever I think about it. These pictures were taken during that time. My mother had her hands full.