I’m writing this article from Bozeman, Mont., where my oldest son Matt is undergoing a serious surgery due to an accident he had while working at Yellowstone National Park. He has worked at Yellowstone for 10 years and was on his next to the last day of work for the season, when the accident occurred.

Everyone who knows Matt knows that he’s a night owl like his mom, so when I received a call from him before 8 a.m. his time I knew something was wrong. The first thing he said was, “You haven’t had a call from anyone at Yellowstone have you?”

I said no and he said, “I was hoping you hadn’t. I wanted to reach you first to let you know I had an accident while we were loading and chaining down some logs to be hauled out of the park.”

One of the chain lock handles caught him right between the eyes and the park EMTs applied a pressure bandage. He was taken to the hospital by one of his crew members. It was a long trip to the hospital, about five hours from the time that it happened and his head and eyes were really swelling. They cleaned him up, stitched up his eyelid and took several CAT scans of his head and face. They said the bone above his eye was fractured and he would need to see a surgeon in a few days. He was given some pain pills and told to go home. It happened to be snowing pretty hard, so his friend drove him part of the way to meet Kris, as his vehicle was back at the park and with no glasses and the shape he was in he couldn’t drive anyway.

When he went to see the surgeon on Friday, there had been a mix-up and he did not have his records or films. Matt was told to come back on Monday. So he left and called the hospital where he had received his emergency treatment and went and picked up his files and had them sent to the surgeon. When he arrived for his appointment on Monday, the doctor had reviewed his records and said that he would have to have surgery as a section of the brow bone was missing. It had been shattered and was completely missing. They will have to cut his head from one ear to the other, lay back his face, remove the fragments of the bone from his brain, reconstruct the bone and then put his skin back. He now understands why the pain has been so bad and I wish as much as he that tomorrow was over.

I want to say a special thank you to the staff at the museum and the many volunteers who have helped while I was gone so I could be here with Matt and to all who helped with the fundraiser, “An Evening Tribute to John Denver” that was held last night.

The museum will be hosting a four-hour AARP refresher defensive driving class on Tuesday, Nov. 17, from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. The cost is $19 and you must pre-register for the class by calling or stopping by the museum. You will receive your certificate the night of the class.

The museum will be decorating one of the Christmas trees at the Albert Lea Art Center again this year. Please be sure to look for our old-fashioned tree.

We will have our annual Christmas Gathering at the museum on Sunday, Dec. 6, from 1 to 4 p.m. More details on the afternoon’s events will appear in my next column.

Remember to tell those you care about that you love them, live life to the fullest and be happy. We never know what tomorrow will bring! The stories of your everyday life are things that your descendants will be interested in. What happened to make you the person that you are or were helps them to understand who they are also. Have a great week and remember to be thankful for all your blessings.

Pat Mulso is the executive director of the Freeborn County Historical Museum in Albert Lea.