Saturday was a quiet day in the south end of town.
In the early evening Bill Farmer had settled in his backyard to listen to a Kansas City Royals baseball game. He had just opened a can of beer.
His next door neighbor, Tim Emmons, was also outside, doing some spring cleaning.
Emmons, who spoke from his hospital bed Tuesday afternoon, said he was on a ladder taking down Christmas lights.
“I really should have had the ladder set up higher, over the eave,” Emmons said.
He had just stepped onto the roof when he reached for the string of lights.
“I leaned a bit too far, and gravity took it from there,” Emmons said.
Emmons landed atop a pickup truck parked in his driveway, his knee crashing through its windshield. Emmons then rolled off the truck, striking his head on the concrete driveway.
Farmer and other neighbors were among those who heard the commotion.
Farmer arrived to see Sherry Emmons, Tim’s wife, and others huddled over the 54-year-old.
“They really weren’t doing anything,” Farmer recalled. “It was like everybody was in shock. It was pretty evident he was in a lot of pain. I knew we needed to get help there.”
Farmer, who had his cell phone with him, offered to make the call.
FROM THERE, everything went downhill.
