It was a beautiful spring evening and I was with my aunt on our way to the George Washington Carver Community Center because she had a NAACP meeting. There were other children playing on the play ground and my brain told me to go to the playground and play with them. So when I got to the playground, we started to play on the slides and swings.
I saw a ladder leaning against the building and I started to climb it... all of a sudden the ladder started to close and then closed all the way. I fell off the ladder and I was on the ground crying. I felt something flowing down my arm and I looked at my right hand. I realized there was blood all over my arm and hand!. I remember thinking when I hit the ground “Why did I climb the ladder?”
Someone ran inside and got my aunt because they saw that I was hurt. My aunt Shirell came out and saw me crying and screaming. She picked me up and ran inside. She tried to wash me up a little but the blood wouldn’t stop flowing. They put a sponge around my hand and put me in the car and drove me to the hospital. When we got there we didn’t even wait, the nurses took me right away! They stopped the bleeding in about 20 minutes. When it finally stopped, I looked at my hand and saw that I was missing part of my pinky and some of my ring finger.
When my parents found out, they rushed to the hospital. When they saw me, they kissed me and hugged me and asked “Are you okay?” I couldn’t really talk so my aunt responded and said, “I think she is okay.” The nurse and doctor wrapped my hand up in a white cloth and a bandage. When they finished wrapping my arm it looked as big as a mummy’s arm. I left the hospital, went to my aunt’s car to get my shoes and then my family had cake and balloons for me in my parents car!
I had the bandage on my hand for a very long time. Finally I went to the hospital and they took it off. I had to go to rehab and learn how to write again because I was unable to use my right hand when I had the bandage over it. For a while you could see the flesh in my ring finger. People come up to me and ask “What happened?” and “Is your pinky going to grow back?”. I always tell this story. People really don’t notice my fingers unless they really look at my hand.