Uncle Pete

So there I was...jumping from a fire escape three stories up to grab onto the window ledge of a building.  It was a few days after the death of Lyndon Johnson who died on January 22nd 1973.  To honor the 36th President of the United States, public schools had the day off and a couple of friends and I decided to ride our bikes across the Connecticut River into Hartford.  After visiting a radio station and several stores, I told the guys I should check in on my elderly uncle who lived in an apartment building in the downtown area.  After knocking at his door and getting no answer I went out onto the fire escape and saw his window half open.  He would sometimes have to do this, even in January, because the old steam radiators in this building would pump out too much heat in certain apartments with no adjustment.  Knowing he wouldn't have left it open if he wasn't home, I leaned out to see into the apartment through the window and saw him lying face down on the floor.  Believing I could make the jump from my perch to the window ledge and acting like a youth with no sense, I made my move.  While hanging on with one arm I was able to slide the window up the rest of the way and scramble through.  He looked bad but was still breathing, though unconscious.  He had laid there for three days and was close to death according to the doctors.  Having Parkinson's Disease, he had fallen and found it impossible to even turn onto his back.  After a long hospital stay he made a full recovery and was better than ever, thanks to a new and effective drug to treat this illness.  
Sometimes, what looks like a negative can have a positive effect.  Who would have thought that several more years would be given to my Uncle Pete because a President died.