The last day of the new year was to be very busy, as we had invited all the neighbors and other friends from George for a buffet, and afterwards we would have our habitual New Year's concert, where every body who accepted the invitation had to either sing, dance, do a little cameo drama or comedy, or just tell a short, strange or funny story.
We were all up early that morning, as each of us had to cook something, and we had to set up all the props, and clean the veranda, get enough chairs together, and all the hundred little things going to make the party a success, and there had to be a lot of food made, as we were having about twenty people who were eager to come!
When all was done, we decided to go and cool down in the river. The river had not gone down to it's old paths and calm flowing yet after the flood, and we were left with some really nice pools to swim in. Then this bright spark Gran remembered a long forgotten way of making small floats from sticks bound together with strands of the long and pliable reeds that had sprouted again, after their being immersed under the flood water for about a week. The kids were really interested, as it was quite exciting to see your little float careering down the stream, manouvering the rapids and bends with relative ease, and we were all running downstream to keep the two floats in sight.
The riverbed was still very slippery from the mud that was left behind when the water subsided, but that was not really a problem for us, until the one float got stuck behind a rock. I carefully lowered my body down the slippery embankment, until I was close enough to give it a shove, but unfortunately the mud started moving, I lost my balance and went down like a bally log! All would have been well if a dead tree trunk was not in my right arm's way, and said arm connected with the trunk with a resounding whack!
I knew immediately that it was broken, but after some good old unrepeatable words that I voiced, and which shocked my kids into silence, I told them that it wasn't too bad, and if we could just put a splint on, I would be able to go till morning, when they could drive me the 140 kilometers to George Hospital, as it was now about three pm, and the first guests were due to arrive at five. The splint made the pain a little better, and I took a bath to clean off the mud, but by about four thirty I was in agony, and knew that there was no way in which I could go through the night with the terrible pain.
Jan, Nina and Irma decided to go with me, Jan driving, Irma and Nina for company. If I had any hope of getting my arm seen too in a reasonable time, I was sadly mistaken, as the emergency room was full of bleeding, crying, limping, and astmatic people, all waiting for attention.
Maybe because I didn't cry and scream out my agony at full throttle, I was overlooked for quite a while, as the serious cases were treated first, and there was some quite serious knife wounds and crash wounds, all bleeding profusely, while I sat very still, as any movement was agony!
When at last I was seen by a doctor, and she took my splint off, she was horrified, as my arm was looking very strange indeed, and I was sent for xrays immediately.
Both the bones in my fore-arm were snapped off, and the joint between my hand and thumb was hurt, and it looked a sorry site indeed.
The doctor showed me on the xrays what was wrong, and said that she could not set the break, and they would have to get the specialist  to come out. I waited for about an hour for this man to appear, and I could see that he was not a happy chappy when he at last came. I felt for him, as I would have been a bitty upset if called from my new year's party to set a bone! He was actually relaxing a bit after a while, and asked me with a straight face if my brew was too strong, that is after he was told that I fell into the river, and I giggled, and told him that I haven't even started drinking when it happened!
It was just before twelve that we drove through our gate again, and nobody had left, waiting to hear what happened at the hospital.
I was okay, and we decided to go on with the concert, and I even did my bit, 'Bob the Builder', that I had specially rehearsed for my little grandson, who just loved that program, well, Trienkie had to open my toy toolbox and held the stuff for me, but I did it, and the look on Andreas's face, who was still awake having waited for his parents to come back, was a huge reward!