One of my worst nightmares came true.

We got up and did our regular grocery shopping first thing Saturday morning. It was such a nice day that after putting everything away; I took my cup of coffee out to the back deck while Jim sat at the dining room table with his coffee, reading the paper.

About half an hour later, I heard a scraping sound. As if someone dragged a kitchen chair over the wooden floor. There was no thump, there was no call out for help, there was just this scraping sound.

I called in through the screen door window. “Hey are you wrecking the place?” Jim has been getting upset with me for always checking in to see if he’s okay, So I’ve started making my inquiries more like a joke.

I decided to check.

Jim wasn’t in the kitchen, the only room with wooden floors in the house. I walked into the dining room to find him lying on the floor, still sitting in the chair. He’d tipped over backwards.

By the time I got there, (a minute or so after hearing the sound). He was looking around, as if confused how he got on the floor. Luckily, he was in the dining room which had a heavy, pile carpet, and good cushiony underlay to soften his landing. I checked his eyes and did the best I could for concussion check. No sense asking him what day or time it was because he couldn’t have told me anyway.

I carefully checked the back of his head for bumps, and then we worked together to lift his bum so I could pull the chair out from under him. Seriously, he was still sitting in the chair just horizontally instead of vertically.

He was a little dazed, but not in a way that was a concern. It was like he had just woken up from a nap. In fact, I think he was sleeping when he toppled because 30 minutes later when I asked him how he felt; he had forgotten that he had fallen. He should have been traumatized.

I constantly worried about him falling on the stairs. Instead, he was sitting in one of the safest chairs in our house when he landed on the floor. (The captain’s chair of our dining room set, a sturdy wooden chair with solid, stable legs and arm rests)

Jim of course is no help to figure out what happened. As soon as I got him  up and moved onto the loveseat in the TV room, he started wondering how he’d fallen from the loveseat. Completely forgetting that he’d fallen in the other room, and then completely forgetting he’d fallen at all.

The nearest I can figure out, given the evidence, is that he knocked over his coffee cup, which soaked the newspaper (that I found on the floor). His pant leg was also soaked with coffee. He must have fallen asleep, spilled this coffee and the cold of his wet pant leg made him jump/push at the table, while still half asleep.  The movement was enough to send him backwards onto the floor.

This opens up a whole new can of worms for me.

When I leave for my respite time, he’s usually sitting at the dining room table in that same chair reading the paper. Until Saturday, I figured it was a safe place to leave him. Now I’m not so sure.

It figures. Even though I’ve taken all of these safeguards to keep Jim safe. Jim finds the crack.