"The fools, the stupid uncaring fools. " I was beside myself with rage. The manager of Ironside Castings, the foundry my son had just started working for, had arrived on my doorstep to announce that my son had had an accident and that both his hands were crushed.
He was full of apologies that in no way placated me. His father and I hadn't wanted Stephen to work in the filthy place, but he had been determined. He had ambitions of becoming a metallurgist, and saw working on the foundry floor for a while as a good starting point before undertaking formal academic studies. And now, just a few days into the job, a casting he was working with fell and crushed his hands, and they had carted Stephen off to the Royal City Hospital.
I listened to what the manager had to say, and then gave expression to my thoughts. I think my words and manner left him in no doubt about how I felt. He departed, still mumbling apologies. I rang my husband who was away on business. They had to call him out of a meeting. I tried to break it to him carefully. "Darling, Stephen has had a bit of an accident at work." My approach didn't help. George knew quite well that I wouldn't have rung him at that time of day on a minor matter.
"What? What is it? What's happened?" I had to give such details as I knew.
"I haven't seen him yet," I explained, "but I'll go to the hospital as soon as I put the phone down.
"Should I come home?" George asked anxiously.
"No," I answered, "wait until I've been to the hospital and found out how bad he is, then I'll give you another call and we can decide then."
I rang off, changed my dress, and drove to the hospital.
Stephen, when I saw him, was very pale and sorry for himself. I kissed him, and asked how he felt. "Not good, mum. They hurt like hell." I had been trained as a nurse, and so I had some idea about the meaning of his injuries. They would immobilise his hands for some time to come.
A nurse entered and loaded a syringe. "This will probably make you sleepy," she said, as the contents of the syringe went in. She turned to me, "If you would like to see Doctor Anderson when you're leaving, I can take you to him." I thanked her and she departed.
The effects of the injection were beginning to show by now as Stephen's eyes drooped and his speech slurred. "I'll leave you now, darling," I said, "I need to phone your father to let him know how things are. Would you like him to come home?" Not a really good time to ask any questions, but Stephen mumbled, "No, he'll be home in a couple of weeks, it's okay."
The nurse took me to Dr.Anderson. We shook hands and he invited me to sit. Coming straight to the point he said, "His hands are badly injured, but they're not quite as bad as they look. I need to have some further x-rays taken, but I think I can safely say that given time, his hands will be fully mobile. There'll be some scars, but I'm fairly sure that will be all." I let out a long sigh of relief.
He went on, "After the initial treatment, there's no reason why Stephen shouldn't go home, providing there's someone there most of the time. You see, he won't be able to use his hands for some time, so he'll need help." I explained my nursing background and he smiled and said, "Excellent. We'll keep Stephen here for a few days and see how he goes. Then make a decision."
Arriving home I rang George and explained the situation, and suggested that he complete his business before coming home, as there was nothing he could do at the moment.
I paid daily visits to Stephen, doing my motherly comforting thing. We had always been very close, even to the point that I had to be careful not to arouse George's jealousy. I tried to imagine how it would be not being able to use your hands, and made tentative adjustments to the household.
On my fifth visit, it was announced that Stephen could come home next day. When I went to pick him up his hands were plastered. When we got home, I began to discover just how immobile he was. He couldn't feed or dress himself, although after a couple of days he did devise ways around some of these problems and all I had to do was zip or button him up.
One embarrassment for him was my having to get his penis out when he wanted to urinate, and getting his trousers down and cleaning him up after he defecated. My nurse training meant that I had no problems about these tasks, but one job in particular proved initially awkward. It was showering him. We needed to keep his casts dry, and me too for that matter. We tried with his hands outside the shower and covered with waterproof plastic, and this worked to some extent, but I got soaked.
After a couple of tries, it was finally decided he should have a bath instead. This worked well except for one embarrassing matter for Stephen. On reaching puberty, he had gone into shy mode, and it was only now I again saw his penis. I recognized that it had grown since my last sighting of it, but Stephen was very self-conscious. It was made even more disconcerting for him when, every time I washed his manhood, it began to stiffen. He apologised profusely and I made noises about being a nurse and all that.