The turning point in my life was probably the summer of 2002. It was the usual hot summer day in my old town Pierce, Nebraska. This day was different though; instead of my mom taking my sister and me to a babysitter. She decided to let us stay home. If we needed anything all we had to do was call her at work. She only worked across town at the manor, so she would be home in about five minutes. Anyway she went off to work and, we did the usual, gave mom a hug and kiss good bye and told her we loved her. Then we were on our own with the whole house to ourselves. Instead of trashing the place, we decided to do something else for mom.

    We both decided that we would do the dishes just to help mom around the house. So I filled the sink up with warm water and used some dawn dish soap to wash the dishes with. There was this rug with gooses on it in front of the kitchen sink. Now this rug didn’t like to stay where it was. Well my sister was being her goofy little self and running around the house. I was in a closet getting a dish rag and all of a sudden I heard this murdering scream. I rushed to the kitchen, and I found my sister lying on the floor. She had slipped on the run. At first I just thought it was a bump, but my sister wouldn’t stop crying, so I called my mom.

    When I was on hold listening to the delightful music, I looked at my sister and saw blood gushing down her face. I thought O MY GOSH what do I do, and I remembered something that I had seen on TV. I had to keep pressure on her cut to help stop the bleeding, so I raced to the closet where the towels were kept, got a washcloth, got it wet, and finally got it on my sister’s forehead. When I picked up the phone, my mom was on the other line. I told my mom to hurry and get home because my sister had gotten cut.

    When my mom got home, mom said that my sister needed to go to the hospital because she might need stitches. When we got there, we had to wait to see a doctor, but when we got there the doctor told us that she needed stitches. So the nurse numbed up her cut and left us there for 15 minutes, and the doctor came back to stitch my sisters cut back up. My sister got to choose the color of the stitches, and she chose purple because it was her favorite color. Later on the ride home my mom told me that she was very proud of me. When she said that, those words hit me like a hammer I will never forget that.