He seldom took any time off, even when he was sick. That day that he fell off the building, he had spent hours explaining to his employer that it was too dangerous, that there had to be another way of doing the job. His employer said to get it done. He fell 18 feet.
At the hospital, it started to become clear how serious his injuries were, all his supervisors were there, assuring me they would take care of us. Knowing this was going to be a long venture, we consulted several lawyers to understand the process. All of them just gave us a list of things that would happen, adding that we didn’t need a lawyer. Those listed things did not happen. When my husband’s leg didn’t heal, and he was unable to do his original job, the same company that said they would always take care of us laid him off, telling us they were helping us because he could get educated to do something else.
That didn’t happen either. I met with our state representatives who fought on our behalf, and still, everything was a waste of time. Many, many appointments – doctor appointments, vocational appointments – it seemed like nobody cared that we had no income, and we were still being forced to spend our resources going to appointments. I couldn’t believe this was happening to an American, a good man who worked hard all his life. I watched my husband get old very quickly.