Trade-Offs

This morning I found out Gary Brown had died in the helicopter on the way to Denver. People I have talked to are still reeling from this because no one thought he was hurt that badly. One of the firefighters who at been at the scene was stunned when he heard Gary had died because he had been talking to the man right up to the moment they put him into the ambulance. He was confidant that Gary would be OK. What none of us knew at the time is that Gary was bleeding internally as he lay in the cab. He had been given two units of blood at our small hospital before being airlifted out but they were racing against time. It was around 10:00 in the morning when he went off the bridge and the Flight For Life helicopter did not get to our town until 1:00 in the afternoon. The trip back to Denver would have taken about an hour and a half. All that time turned out to be time that Gary did not have.

I did not really think about what living out here in this little town meant before today. I do know we do not have to worry about crime here, as my husband says, it's not that we don't have crime it's just that we know who's doing it. We don't have to worry about air pollution or traffic jams either. We can be in the country just by walking five minutes when we step out our front door. We can keep the windows open at night in the summer, don't have to worry about noise or someone sneaking in. But now I see that any kind of serious accident, one that I would survive if I was in a big city, could kill me here.