Over the weekend we tried to recuperate. We slept on the fold-out couch in the living room. It started to seriously snow Friday and by Sunday it had snowed a foot and a half. That was fine with us. We were safe and warm and needed sleep. By early Tuesday morning the snow slowed down, we cleared the walks and steps and felt ready for the movers.
I had to work, so Merry got the job of supervising the movers. A glitch developed soon after the movers arrived. The debit card giving access to our bank in St. Louis didn't work. Since I was downtown, I ran over to our Syracuse bank and got a bank check to pay the movers. When I called Merry to tell her I had the money, I sensed anxiety in her voice. Instead of agreeing to run down to pick up the check, she asked if I could take the bus home as soon as possible because things were hectic. I was a bit puzzled, but agreed. I got permission to leave early and hopped on a city bus.
The moving van was parked out front. Three guys were marching in and out carrying boxes, furniture, tools, etc. at a pretty good clip. Merry was standing in the open front door with a clipboard checking off the inventory. As soon as I walked up she handed me the clipboard and told me she had to leave to go to the hospital. She quickly explained that as I was talking to her on the phone earlier, Dick, one of the movers, was having a heart attack on our steps.
Dick is a very fit and strong guy of 49, but smokes and probably eats a lot of fried fast food at truck stops in his life on the road. We learned that the driver and the crew are all from a little town south of Morgantown, WV. Dick grew up doing farm chores on a poor tenant farm. “My daddy worked me pretty hard, I can tell you that.” Before deciding to do long haul moving with his boyhood friend, Dave, Dick worked as a welder on small oil and gas drilling rigs around the northeast. His only prior trip to Syracuse was during a gas rig job some years ago. He was randomly playing a numbers game to pass the time in a restaurant in Corning, NY when he hit for $3000. He drove the three hours north to Syracuse to collect his winnings.
On Tuesday morning Dick was hauling boxes of our stuff into the house when he suddenly felt lightheaded. He was sweating profusely. He insisted to Merry that he was OK, but he stayed seated on the steps rather than continuing to work. It was at this point I called home about the check. The situation was unsettled so Merry knew she couldn't leave right then to come downtown. When Dick didn't recover right away, Merry got Dave, the driver, to talk to him. After a parlay, Dick and Dave agreed to let Merry drive Dick to the ER to get checked out. While preparing to leave, it dawned on Mer how serious the situation was. Instead of getting into the car she dialed 911. This decision may have saved Dick's life.
Merry described Dick's symptoms accurately and without drawing any conclusions. The 911 operator quickly determined this was a genuine emergency and dispatched a crash truck. The fire station is only two blocks from our house. The firefighters were there literally in two minutes. Dick was stabilized and transported to the nearest emergency room.
For the rest of the day cardiologists ran tests on Dick while the other three guys unloaded our stuff. I took over inventory duty. Merry visited Dick in the ER and discovered he was not going to die. Later in the afternoon when the move was over, Merry and the driver Dave went back to the ER. While they were gone I tried to entertain the other two movers. We assembled the bed then I got out Christmas cookies and warmed up some hot chocolate. As I stood around the kitchen with these two guys in their late teens from the backwoods of WV I quickly ran out of topics of conversation. Their interests were pretty much limited to four-wheelers, video games, and the lives of their family members. One told me that the state sends all the crazy people to his town. The other said his grandpa could build anything out of wood and he hoped he would help him build a log home. Both had graduated from high school by the skin of their teeth and both thought they would like full time work as welders on drilling rigs, just like Dick had done.
Thankfully Merry and Dave soon returned. The medical staff refused to give them any detailed information since neither was related to Dick. Dick was confused whether to stay for more tests or sign himself out so he could travel on with the truck. We agreed that Dave would take the boys to the local truck stop for something to eat, and that Merry and I would go back to talk with Dick. In the ER I questioned Dick closely and was able to convince him to stay for one more test. We told him we would provide him with transport back to the truck or to the bus station whichever he needed. A couple of hours later Dick was released. His heart attack was mild. He was stable. We picked him up and drove him to the truck stop to join the crew. Along the way he told us he believed the invention of the round baler had ruined the younger generation. No question that throwing hay bales all day instills a good work ethic.
We dropped Dick off at the moving van where the others were engaged in folding the dozens of pads used to protect our furniture. We hope he made it back safely to WV and that he'll get on-going treatment for his heart. In retrospect, I'm very impressed with the way Merry acted in this difficult situation. She never took control away from Dick or Dave, but at the same time made it possible for them to make the right decisions about Dick's health. She's a potent combination of Florence Nightingale and Super Girl. Just one more reason I love her.
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