I’m the kind of person who hardly ever gets sick or injured.

With that being said, I am quite clumsy, and you can imagine my horror and shock when I fractured my ankle in the stupidest way possible.

I was just walking to my next class and tripped on a twig, or a crack in the sidewalk, or something else completely innocuous right outside of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union and twisted my ankle.

In short, I ended up fracturing my anklebone and couldn’t come to class for a couple of days.

While this was little more than a scratch for someone athletic, it was a big deal to me at the time.

Dad was level with me and said I’d probably be right as rain in a week or so, but my mom was mortified.

I live a good 3 1/2 hours away from my Geneseo home, and the last thing my mom could do was visit me while I was injured.

I could tell she felt horrible and a little guilty she couldn’t visit me.

In retrospect, I think we both knew I was totally fine, but mom still wanted to show how much she loved me.

One morning, maybe four days after the injury, I was in bed when I got a call from my mom.

She was happy to hear that I was feeling a lot better and that I was already able to put a little pressure on my ankle without being in any pain.

Mom, bless her heart, couldn’t keep her secret for longer than a minute; she said, “Loges, if anyone knocks on your apartment door, answer it.”

At first, I was shocked. Had mom made the last-minute decision to skip town and visit me?

She assured me over the phone that she simply couldn’t, but the question of who on Earth would be paying me a visit was still up in the air.

She admitted she was sending me a bouquet of flowers to my door on that day.

I was overcome with emotion.

No one, not even my boyfriend at the time, had ever sent me a bouquet before.

To know someone cared so much about me—that meant a lot.

I started sobbing, sobbing so hard that my roommate checked in on me to ensure I wasn’t in any severe pain.

It was at that moment I realized just how lucky I was to have such a loving mother and to have a family that cared.

I know everyone is different; some people don’t have families they can turn to or friends they can count on.

In any case, if you have family, friends or a support system somewhere, call and check in on them.

Odds are they care about you a lot more than you realize, and it would mean the world to them to hear from you.

Logan Raschke is a junior journalism major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or at lrraschke@eiu.edu.