I’ve been MIA in my FIM (Foodie in Miami), but it has been an interesting month and a half.

First, I was busy planning Emma and Guillermo’s wedding, then flying to Costa Rica, then disaster struck. My husband Zeke broke his ankle the day before the wedding on a Monkey Excursion. Ironically, we picked it because it seemed the safest of the excursion options and, with the bride being pregnant, ziplining, horseback riding and surfing were out.

But the Monkey Excursion, where we were told we’d stay in the van searching for Howler monkeys, seemed quite safe. After an hour with no monkey sightings, we stopped the van and got out when we heard some monkeys howling. We climbed up a rocky embankment, saw some Scarlet Macaws in a tree and, while walking back to the van, Zeke (wearing flip flops), slipped down, fell on his ankle and shattered it. The ensuing chaos that follows, I don’t want to get into, but luckily he made it to the wedding.

He wasn’t able to walk Emma down the aisle, but was standing there waiting to “give her away” and, while he couldn’t dance with her either, he did stand on the dance floor and sway with her to Butterfly Kisses. I told Emma before the wedding that something always goes wrong at a wedding, but normally it’s fine because no one will know what happened but you.

At my wedding they served green beans with dill instead of green beans almondine. Looking back at it, who cares? But Zeke breaking his ankle? Everyone at the wedding knew, all the staff at the hotel (which was lovely) knew and even some hotel guests had heard about it. Zeke, and his unlucky mishap, were the talk of Punta Islita.

There were things to be thankful for. While we got extreme pressure to have surgery in Costa Rica, he did not (thank God), thanks to Emma sending a photo to a doctor friend in Miami. The doctor in San Jose (a friend of the groom’s uncle) just reset and cast his ankle. We arrived in Miami without incident, he got surgery a week later and is now on the road to recovery.

I have learned some hard truths from this experience. It’s funny how you can be married to someone for almost 20 years and still not really know them. I didn’t realize that Zeke is fanatical about his showers. I mean, like a fiend. He insisted, in our hotel room in Costa Rica to take a shower with his broken ankle. He had to haul the cast over a tall ledge into the shower in order to accomplish this task and his crutches almost slipped on the wet tile upon exiting. I almost had a heart attack.

“No!”, I said. “You can’t fall again.”

Also, he drinks a lot of iced tea. I never realized how much, but in the first week we were home, it seemed all I did was make iced tea and slice lemons. Also, breakfast, lunch and dinner. And cleaned up.

Normally, I cook, he cleans (or as he says, he cooks and cleans) but now, all the responsibility and work has fallen on me. It is really exhausting, on top of driving to doctor’s appointments, picking up medicine, sorting out medicine, etc… It gives me a great deal of respect for caregivers, and this is only a broken ankle- a temporary situation. And, although being in a wheelchair did help us speed through customs upon our arrival in Miami, I’ve also become keenly aware of how handicap-accessible places are (or are not).

We went to the Keys the weekend before last and most of the restaurants are not at all handicap accessible. Most have gravel driveways which make it hard to navigate on crutches and impossible to travel with a knee scooter.

The knee scooter, which has been a life-saver, was delivered the day before the surgery. The delivery came late and the man delivering it, knew Costa Rica very well. We told him the whole story about the Monkey Excursion, the embankment, the deadly flip flops, and he shook his head and said none of that mattered. That it was fate that it happened and that nothing we could have done would have prevented it. He was quite a chatty (probably why he was late) and philosophical scooter delivery man, with an upbeat personality.

And since I would like to find the silver lining in this disaster I’m inclined to agree with him. This accident has made me appreciate all the things my husband normally does around the house. It really hit home last weekend when I had 30 people over for my 3 year old grandson Phoenix’s birthday party. Zeke usually helps a lot- cutting the grass, cooking, cleaning, getting ice- but this year, he couldn’t and it make me appreciate what a partnership our marriage really is. The first one was not like that.

I think Zeke also has a new appreciation for me. He used to call me Nurse Ratchet (from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest); now he calls me Florence Nightingale. I wouldn’t go that far, but I have tried to rise to the occasion. And so this disaster that happened at Emma and Guilllermo’s wedding has actually turned out to be a blessing, of sorts, for our marriage.

My Wish

I hope the days come easy and the moments pass slow And each road leads you where you want to go And if you’re faced with a choice, and you have to choose. I hope you choose the one that means the most to you. And if one door opens to another door closed I hope you keep on walkin’ till you find the window. If it’s cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile.

But more than anything, more than anything. My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that want it to Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small You never need to carry more than you can hold. And while you’re out there getting where you’re getting to. I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too

Yeah, this is my wish.

Rascal Flats

This was a song I had requested they play at the wedding for Emma. They never did play it and, after everything else, I let it go. But it still holds true. And my wish, after all this is over, is to go on a really nice trip for our 20th year wedding anniversary. But not Costa Rica. Never Costa Rica again for me.

Up Next: Redoing my Foodie in Miami website!