My Personal Ledgend

My personal legend is one that is shared with few people in my family – I’m not even sure if those others consider it legendary but to me it is something that is burnt into my memory.

Every summer my Great Grandmother, (Nan Hipson) spent the whole season at a campground in Bridgewater that is specifically for ex-military members. My family and I would visit Nan every few weekends at the campground, and once every summer she would have our entire family in for a reunion gathering.

It was a Sunday afternoon in July, after Nan’s big family reunion; everyone had gone home to prepare for the following workweek. Sitting down on the dock overlooking the lake, my mom, dad, nanny, poppy, Nan Hipson and I were having lunch and relaxing after the commotion that had gone on the past few days.

Nan always has either cats or dogs and every single one of her pets is named the same name, Hippy, (get it, Hippy – Hipson!). Her Hippy at this time was a wiener dog that was about 20 pounds overweight because Nan would excessively feed him.

As usual on this day, Nan gave Hippy the left over’s from the steak she was having for lunch. She left a little bit of meat on the bone and shared with Hippy who had been bumming for food since before she sat down. He happily took his bone and went under a chair to enjoy. Suddenly we heard him choking and gasping for air. A piece of the bone had gotten caught in his little throat and he came running out from under the chair unable to breathe.

So many things happened in the span of the next minutes it’s hard to describe the whole situation but this is a basic visual break down of what I experienced:

Nan Hipson: crying and screaming “just put him out of his misery!”

My Poppy: Running up six flights of stairs to the trailer to try and get anything that may help,

My Nanny and Mom: Sitting in shock with terror in their eyes, because they were watching Nan’s dog die,

And my dad: Who grabbed Hippy by the collar, flipped him over on his belly, stuck his fingers down his throat to dislodge the bone, and giving him CPR until he came back to life.

I watched Hippy take his first breath, roll over and bounce back to his happy little self. Nan Hipson was overjoyed with happiness, tears rolling down her cheeks while she kissed my dad up and down.

The whole time I don’t think I moved from my lawn chair or said a word, but I know I will never forget my dad’s actions the day he became a hero by saving Hippy’s life.