Here is a note I posted on Facebook, detailing a fright my family experienced on Sunday afternoon.
I’ll let it speak for itself. It probably needs no more explanation, though for clarity, I did add some [bracketed] comments. Feel free to share similar stories to make me feel some solidarity. 
Towers, 4x4’s and blood. Plus, the show must go on.
Yesterday [Sunday] afternoon, we went on our “Tower Climb” with the cast of the American Songbook [a musical production my family and I are involved in]. Just a little trek up the steep stairs and ladders of Trinity Church’s [Newport, RI] tower. So, we get to the top, and are walking around, climbing, writing and carving our names (tradition, of course), and a 4-foot long piece of 4x4 lumber, which wasn’t attached to anything, was bumped by one of the other visitors, and fell about 6 feet, and landed on both my kids’ heads. Jonathan [8] got the worst of it. There was a lot of blood, and we couldn’t tell what had really happened. It was about 10 minutes before 6pm, and we had to get down from the very top of the tower, and before the bells rang for 6. Diane wrapped Jon’s head in her sweatshirt as best she could, and they went down. I had Erin [12]. There was no blood on her, but she did get a really good whack on the head too. After Di and Jon went down, Erin started complaining that she “couldn’t hear”, and was feeling dizzy. We had to get her down too. Now it’s 7 minutes before 6, and as we’re going down, Erin is getting greener and greener, and complaining that she was getting hot. I was sure she was going to faint, and I would have to carry her down steep ladders and stairs.
Eventually we got down - how, I have no idea - but just as we got outside the church doors, the bells rang for 6. I left Erin sitting on the stairs outside the church to go find Di and Jon, and she was washing his head in the kitchen of the church hall. Turns out he had about a 1 inch gash in his scalp (hence all the blood). So, Di took both kids to the ER to get checked out, while I stayed behind.
Now, this was also the last night of our American Songbook show, which we are all in, and now it’s about an hour from the opening number. Di called a couple of times with updates: we’re checked in … They took BP and heart rate - all normal … Doctor just came in … it’ll be about 40 minutes or so …
So, the show had to be rearranged a bit to allow them time to get back from the ER, so they could still do the show. Yes - they all still did the show.
The only snafu was that Di’s parts in the opening number had to be covered by one of the other girls. Somehow, the family managed to get back from the hospital for Di to come out, fully dressed, in the first “Ensemble” number, much to the surprise of everyone in the cast.
Their return somehow energized the cast beyond what we ever could have expected, and we did the best show of the entire run. The number that we do with the kids, however, was tough. Di almost couldn’t hold it together. The song was “Turn Around” - you might know it as the Harry Belafonte song they used in an old Kodak Commercial:
Where are you going my little one, little one
Where are you going, my baby, my own,
Turn around, and you’re two
Turn around, and you’re four,
Turn around, and you’re a young man, going out of the door
Not a dry eye in the house.
BTW - the kids are fine: Jonathan has the ultimate badge of courage: Two staples in his head, and his blood staining the floor of the uppermost room in Trinity’s tower for all eternity. Erin has quite a large egg on her head – only because hers didn’t bleed. And they both have one of the best stories a kid has ever had to tell their friends for the rest of their lives.
And Diane and I are the most grateful parents ever. Makes you put things in perspective. Our family is healthy, happy, and safe. And we can still sing.
Tough kids. Tough Parents. Glad everything’s OK. Well done!