It wasn’t the best day in a lot of ways, but what can you
do? I’m traveling to Virginia next week, so I’d miss my day to go
to market, so I was excited when Jillian agreed to flip-flop weeks with
me. Before I could get to market,
however, I worked in the fields for the morning. I was bug-checking for squash bugs in Field 7
when I found an ‘adolescent’ squash bug (right before its adult stage),
squished it, and its trajectory was straight for my eye. It felt like a burn of a thousand suns. I yelped to nearby Annie to run to get my
water to flush out my eye. Through
cringing and tears, I eventually made my way up to the house to flush my left
eye out in the sink. Much to my despair,
my eye had swelled. The swelling had
mostly gone down with some icing by the time we left for market, but there was
still a dull burn, and Mary suggested that Kenya and I stop by the emergency
room on our way home if it still hurt at the end of the day. This would be my last farmer’s market with Kenya since she would be at Maine Fiddle Camp
and then on vacation in Pemaquid ,
ME Kenya ’s
wallet. We backtracked our trail 4 or 5
times and had an employee help us, but it was no use. Kenya was extremely hard on herself
and incredibly distraught that she’d lost the money from market, several gift
cards, and her tip money from Open Farm Day. There’s no greater punishment for Kenya , I’d say, than Kenya being mad at herself. We got home and ate dinner at 10:30, beat from
the high emotions of the day. Mom had me
call Poison Control to check in about my eye – surprisingly I could find no
suggestions online for what happens when you squirt squash bug guts in your eye
(it has to have happened to someone else before!). The dull burn had stayed throughout the day,
but they affirmed that I would not go blind. I told Kenya that all we can say at the
end of a day like this is: C’est la vie. Worse things could have happened and
life will go on.
I'm sure Kenya finds it's little comfort, but you're right - that's life and "stuff happens". So sorry about her losing her wallet; I wish I could replace it or find it for her, but we can rejoice that you will not go blind!! How traumatic!
ReplyDeleteRoz commented during our visit that those in her generation living the longest are the ones who were best able to deal with life's ups and downs. I hope Kenya can forgive herself. You can tell her about our lawsuit - it's a similar thing because we "lost" money too in a way that is beyond our control, but in the end it's only money, it's our/her health, something that cannot be replaced.