Last Wednesday, Betsy, my dear bride, fell in her bathroom and fractured both bones in her right leg below the knee. This is the leg that stopped growing when she was 12 and contracted polio, just before the Salk and Sabin vaccines were discovered.

After a long day on a stretcher in a corridor outside the busy Emergency Room, she spent a full week in a room on the fifth floor of UNC Hospital, during which doctors and others decided against surgery and instead tried various braces on her broken leg to stabilize it and encourage healing.

Meanwhile, the assisted living facility where she lives required that we equip her room there so she could be cared for properly on her return: a new hospital-style bed, bedside commode, over-the-bed table. But on her return, the demands of her around-the-clock care were too much for the staff to manage, so the decision was made to transfer her to a skilled nursing facility, a step up in her care.

We found such a place, one with a good reputation about a 20-minute drive away. It has a room available, and as I write this, we are awaiting approval from our insurers before we can move her there for the next several weeks for her rehabilitation.

At her present assisted living facility, she, in her dementia, tried several times to climb out of her bed, creating a big problem for her caregivers, so we now are financing someone to sit in her room around-the clock to protect her from harming herself in this way.

Today was to have been moving day to the skilled nursing facility, but the day passed without any word from the insurance company, so we needed to hire another overnight sitter and hope that we can move her tomorrow.

During the day today, she complained of chest pains, leading to the assisted-living staff to summon paramedics, who recommended another ER visit, which we declined as her distress subsided, and her heart test looked good.

Our family is working together in every way we can, along with dedicated others, to care for this woman, the most important person in my life.

Tomorrow is another day. We hope it will be her moving day. Your prayers are invited.