July 23, 2016: Morning of day 2.
Josh and I, along with Michael, slept in a little, so we didn't make it over to Uncle Karl's first thing in the morning. I had been told that Uncle David and Aunt Sheila and their kids would be leaving on Saturday to go to their other family reunion for Aunt Sheila's side. But I didn't realize they would be leaving right after breakfast. So they tried to take a group photo with everyone there before they left. This is only about half of the group, as several of us weren't there yet or came later in the day.
Dad with some of his brothers and sisters.
L to R: Uncle David, Aunt Ann, Uncle Leo, Aunt Nathalia and Dad (No one knew it yet, but this would be the last chance to get a photo with all the Thatcher siblings together.)
Josh and I arrived not long after Uncle David and Aunt Shiela's family left. We ate and chatted, while the kids played.
...And then we had a tragedy occur that would change everything: We were told that Dad had been in an accident on his ATV. At that point we didn't know what to expect or how badly he was hurt. A bunch of us went running to find him, just in time to see my brother Josh, rushing him up to the car on the side-by-side. Dad was immediately given a Priesthood blessing by my Uncle Gary and then Josh and I rushed him to the ER in Lincoln City. I called Mom from the car, who had been in town grocery shopping with my sister and told her we were on our way to the ER with Dad and she needed to meet us there.
When we got to the ER, I told Dad we needed a picture to document this and he smiled! Dad is such a trooper!
***
Dad said he had been riding his 4-wheeler with his great niece on the back. He had started up a hill and said he had the ATV in too high a gear and it stalled on him. Then it started rolling backward, he hit the brake and it reared up on him. At that point, he knew it was going to roll, so he reached around and threw Stella off. He then tumbled down the hill and the ATV came down and landed sideways, with the handle bar directly in Dad's right eye. He said that he pushed it off with such force that it landing back upright on the ground. He was so upset with himself for taking a passenger on a hill like that. He said he knew better than to be doing that and he was so thankful to have saved her.
The doctor at the ER informed us that Dad had sustained such trauma to his eye that he would need to be airlifted to a trauma center in Portland. They did a cat scan and x-rays and said that Dad had broken several bones around his eye socket. They could not see the pupil and the eye was filling with blood. Other than the severe eye and face injuries, Dad miraculously walked away without any other injuries.
Mom arrived shortly after us and when she was told that she would not be able to fly with Dad to Portland, she immediately left to drive to OHSU. That effectively ended their time at the reunion. --Mom assured us that she would be ok driving alone and said she wanted us to stay at the reunion, as all we could do would be to wait for more information, either at the coast or in Portland. So we went back to be with the rest of the family.
My cousin, Camea, had come to the ER too, just to have Stella checked out. And other than a goose-egg on the back of her head, Stella turned out not to have any other injuries, which we were all relieved to hear. She sent me this picture of Dad getting ready for his helicopter ride to Portland. When I called my brother, Jeff, who was in Portland, to let his know about Dad's accident, he said he would go straight to the hospital. It brought some peace of mind knowing that Dad would not be alone when the helicopter landed in Portland and that Mom would not have to wait alone when she arrived. Right about the time that we started dinner up at the reunion, Dad was going into surgery in attempts to fix his ruptured eye.
Later that evening, I took a picture of some of Dad's siblings. Missing Uncle David who left in the morning, Dad who was at the hospital in Portland and Uncle Leo (not sure where he was).
L to R: Aunt Carol, Aunt Ann, Aunt Joy, Uncle Karl and Aunt Nathalia.
Hanging out with the cousins.
My brother Darren and his daughter Renae.
Renae arrived in the evening.
We tried to enjoy the evening, but a good part of it was spent worrying and waiting for updates from Jeff and Mom on Dad's condition. Versii was so worried about Grandpa, that he kept following me around and randomly breaking into tears all throughout the day. He has such a big heart and loves his Grandpa so much! Even on our way to the reunion, he started crying just worrying about leaving our cat, Khaleesi, home alone.
***
About 5 hours after taking Dad into surgery, we received the update that they had finished up and Dad now had 15 sutures in his eye. The doctors said his eye seemed to be retaining fluid. His retina was prolapsed or detached during the accident and they did not know at that time the extent of the damage. And that they would have to allow the eye to heal for some time before they would worry about doing surgery to fix his broken facial bones.
It was sad returning to our beach house that evening, knowing Mom and Dad would not return.
