Yes, I can

After an appropriate amount of time -- say long enough to tell I was not concussed or likely to die from my fall yesterday -- Mom asked me a question I am sure everyone who has ever helped me up probably wonders.

Could you get up if I didn't help you?

I love the help and assistance, even if I do not always properly show it. It makes life so much easier.

But in all the time I have been falling, I think there has only been once that I could not -- given enough time -- get up on my own.

That was when I fell out of my chair and broke my collar bone. I needed the strangers who stopped to pick me up and get me back in the chair. Then I gutted out the 20 yards back to my condo and called for help.

To be sure, I will whine about it later, maybe make it sound real dire, but I have yet to meet a fall I could not handle.