My husband, Bob,  and I were married in 1988 and moved into a modern duplex that sat back about 500 feet from the road.  Our backyard was large and faced the woods with another duplex on our right.  Elderly neighbors lived on our left in a single family house.  It was a small community of homes in a rural setting and we felt fortunate to live there.  Wildlife was abundant and often in our very backyard.  On more than one occasion we had bears visit and deer quite often grazed and sometime slept in the yard. 

Accessed from the duplex dining room, a large raised porch extended the full length of the house facing the backyard but separated from our neighbor by a storage shed.  It was private and a perfect place to relax in the summer.  Year round we fed birds, squirrels and chipmunks from this deck.

One frosty Saturday morning after I had departed to shop for groceries; my husband opened the door and stepped out onto our deck to give the birds their morning seed. As he approached the feeder he heard a large snap.  Suddenly his left leg plunged through the wood.  Bob found himself kneeling on his right leg with the left leg dangling through a jagged hole.  Upon inspection he determined that he was not injured. The rotted spot had splintered badly so that he could not lift his leg through the hole without puncturing his leg.  By pressing down on the damaged area he could keep the splinters away but then he had no leverage to stand up and extract himself from the hole. After trying various times to stand, he decided he was in real trouble and needed help. It was near freezing temperature and he was in his shirt sleeves trapped outside.

Bob proceeded to shout “Help” and “I’ve fallen through our deck and can’t get out”.  He knew the other residents of our duplex had left for work, and the duplex next door was empty while a family occupied the other side.  It was unlikely they could hear him.  He continued to shout, hoping someone walking by would hear.  Time passed and he was shivering violently.  Then he heard a car pull into our drive at the front of the house.  We were not expecting anyone, but he was elated! He started shouting again as loudly as he could.  Yes, he heard hesitant steps coming around the side of our house.  He started shouting, “Up here, up here!”  

A blond fashionably dressed lady, totally unknown to him, appeared at the bottom of the deck stairs.  She was obviously astonished to see a man with his leg stuck through the planks above her.  Without further hesitation she came up on the deck and asked how she could help.  Bob looked at her doubtfully.  Well, he thought, she could at least go for help, the lady thought otherwise.  While he pressed down on the splintered wood she grabbed him and yanked him out of that hole.  With only minor scrapes he and she made it into our home.  Bob was shaken and so was the lady, but both was fine.  The lady told Bob her name and that she was an acquaintance of mine.  Her purpose in coming to our house was to deliver some Christmas wrapping paper I had ordered through our women’s group. He told her that had she not arrived just then he might have suffered serious hypothermia.  She offered to drive him to the hospital to get checked out but he declined. 

When I returned home and learned of the situation I was not surprised to know it was Karen who had saved my husband.  She was the owner of a local beauty shop and involved in various philanthropic organizations.  When I later tried to thank her, she was embarrassed and did not think she was a heroine.  I did think so.  We became close friends.