The Bear

I remember when I was very young, before I started school, my dad was away at the hospital across the street from our house because he had an injury.  I do remember going to visit him once in there, he came down to the lobby to meet us. 

 

Well this injury, apparently, was from a massive grizzly bear.  It was on his shoulder, had a big scar all his life.  You could see where every stitch went in.  My whole childhood, he told us that he was mauled by a bear, but he beat that bear, he won!  He totally bossed that bear, he was a hero.  He had even snapped a picture of it before it all went down.  

 

As I grew, I found out that, the picture of the bear is a picture from a bear in a museum.  And the scar on his shoulder is because he skiied off a steep hill, hurting his shoulder and he had to get surgery to repair it. 

 

As Papa lay in the hospital, the nurse asked what the scar was from, I smiled.  The whole bear story went through my head.  But my mouth said, "Skiing."  Lol. 

 

I came across the exact picture he showed us while we were growing up, of the bear that he so heroically fought and defeated.  He was quite the story teller, much like his grandfather.

Submitted by: Jackie Dietrich, Daughter