By Denise Louise Gregorka

In 1969, when I was about seven years old, I jumped into my parent’s red Chevy Corvair 4-door sedan.

Mom was in the driver’s seat, rushing us kids to get into the car, probably because she was running late for an appointment. I jumped into the back seat and started to pull the door shut. I imagine some of you remember how heavy car doors were back then, and for a 7-year-old little girl, that was always a struggle. I did manage to get the door closed. It only took a few seconds before I felt the raw, stinging pain that ensued as I realized that I had shut the door on my toe….my big toe!

I was wearing a pair of red canvas sneakers, so I could not tell if I had actually cut anything. I slowly took the right one off and saw that my yellow sock was no longer yellow, I removed my sock, and to my horror…my toe came off with the sock. My poor mother had to hear her child let out a blood-curdling scream as I sat there holding my toe in my hand.

She drove me to the nearest town where old Doc Witherelll’s office was. Why we didn’t just call a “toe” truck, I’ll never know. 😝 The Dr. was with a patient, and we were told to wait in the waiting room. My young mind could not understand why we had to wait to be seen, but that was the situation. It seemed like hours, but I am sure it was only minutes.

Doc Witherell had to work under extreme pressure as I screamed and screamed while he sewed my toe back on. He did it…he sewed my toe back on in his office, bandaged it, and sent me home with orders not to walk on it for two weeks.

We had no wheelchair, so our elderly neighbor offered hers from when she was a child with polio. The wheelchair was old! It was wooden with a caned back and a hard, uncomfortable wooden seat. It creaked when moved. That old wheelchair was where I lived for two weeks, and I sure was happy to send it back once I began to recover.

It turns out the old Doc did a pretty good job, as I have had no issues with my toe all these years. There is now only a faint scar.

Moral of the story: Tuck those digits in before shutting the door!