The story came out slowly, painfully, over the next several hours.
—
**The Accident – 1972**
We had only been married for a little over a year. I was pregnant with Michael and struggling with terrible morning sickness. Richard was working extra shifts at the plant to save for the baby.
One freezing January night in 1972, a terrible accident happened at the steel plant. A ladle of molten steel malfunctioned during a pour. Richard was one of the workers nearby. The splash of superheated metal caught him across the back and part of his left shoulder before he could fully turn away.
He spent six weeks in the burn unit at Cook County Hospital. The doctors said he was lucky to be alive. The burns were third-degree in several areas. Skin grafts were taken from his thighs and buttocks. The pain was unimaginable.
But Richard made a decision in that hospital bed.
He refused to let me see him during the worst of it. He told the nurses to keep me away, claiming he didn’t want to upset the pregnancy. When he finally came home, heavily bandaged, he swore to himself that I would never have to live with the sight of his ruined back.
