Memories of a treasure found

It was Christmastime 12 years ago when the mystery happened, but it was just recently that we discovered where the treasure was buried. It all started when my nine-year-old grandson was in the Critical Care Unit with peritonitis from a ruptured appendix. I flew down to San Diego to help our daughter Lisa when the second catastrophe hit.

I was caring for my two younger grandsons at a park and I slipped down a creek bed while trying to catch some pollywogs for them. My left foot was nearly twisted off the lower leg bones. Severe fractures, major trauma. I had no feeling or movement in my toes, but luckily I could feel a pedal pulse. I used the boys' knee pads to splint my grossly deformed foot and then Lisa arrived and helped drag me up to her van. The hospital was only 6 miles away, but the emergency room was terribly overcrowded.

I felt like I was in a whole different country as hardly anyone spoke English. It was two-and-a-half hours before I received the first shot of Demerol for the extreme pain and the next day before an orthopedic specialist was available to do the extensive repair surgery. I spent five very frustrating, depressing and painful days in the far away hospital where they put metal plates and screws into my foot and ankle bones. If the accident had happened here, I know the excellent and loving care I would have received from our local EMTs, paramedics and hospital staff. It would be a far cry from the impersonality of a big, cold city hospital.

When I arrived home here in Fish Springs one of Gail McCormick's warm homemade pumpkin pies was sitting on the kitchen counter. Gail also brought dinners every night that were made by the staff of Gardnerville Elementary School. Lots of friends, family and neighbors visited me and were very supportive. This is such a warm and caring community and I feel blessed to be a part of it. I hardly knew Bonnie Jones at that time, and that's when the mystery started. She did all my Christmas shopping for me. She got my husband a metal detector and our old friend Larry Cowden gave us a special silver dollar to bury someplace out in our yard. Our daughter Christy carefully buried the silver dollar and made a map of its hiding place.

My husband has spent the last 12 years walking around our 5-acre yard with the metal detector in his hands. Christy even gave him the map of just where the coin was buried, "between the garage and chicken coop," but we never found it there. We worried that the coin might be buried too deep in the dirt for the detector to find it, but recently, out of the blue, the treasured coin was found right on top of the dirt, but not nearly where it was buried. It was out by our windmill, hundreds of feet away from the garage and chicken coop. Last year my husband moved some dirt around and apparently he dumped a wheel barrel full out in the back yard. It's been a mystery to us all that time, but stranger things have happened. Thanks for the treasure hunt Larry, and thanks to everyone for my treasure of your love.

-- Linda Monohan can be reached at 782-5802.