Fam Friday: Meet Taylor Gledhill

Taylor and his Great Dane, Royce 2008

If there's one phrase that encapsulates my brother-in-law Taylor's personality, it would be "near death experience."  Taylor was a cute kid and always thrived on hanging out with the grown ups.  When he was eight years old, I offered to take him tubing down the Provo River with me and my gal pals (I would be lying if I said I didn't have other "gotta impress the future in-laws" motives).  Half way down the river I knew I had made a grave mistake.  Taylor, who was sharing a tube with me, was miserable, claiming that he thought he was going into shock from hypothermia.  Great.  How do we got off this dumb river?  I thought to myself.  If his blue lips weren't freaking me out enough already, imagine my horror to look down and realize that our tube had been punctured and was rapidly deflating.  

I prayed.

Hard.

I don't remember how, but we managed to grab a rock and pull ourselves out just as Crazy Katie and Jeanice Benson whizzed past us, crashing into a bush.  

Taylor and I hiked up to the highway and began the descent down Provo Canyon on foot.  After a few minutes, a truck pulled over.  Woohoo!  Some help!  Truck man turns out to be recent ex-boyfriend.  Dang.  Awkward moments ensued on the ride home whilst I explained my plans to be married to this shivering kid's big brother.  Just goes to show that ex-boyfriends come in handy sometimes.

Taylor and Yours Truly at Disneyland 2008

While most of Taylor's near death experiences have likely resulted from his father's attempts to hang him up by his toenails, other monumental ones include an operation he had last year in which his entire rib cage was cut out, reversed, then sown back on (not kidding), then a longboarding accident with a car (hit and run), and falling through his kitchen ceiling into the renter's bathroom below.  

I'm glad Taylor is still alive because what other 18-year-old would give me awesome new music, gift me his old snowboarding boots, talk to me about his girlfriends, and show me his crazy myspace profile pics?  Rock on Tay-Tay.  I believe in you.  You are going to make a stellar EMT.  After all, you're a veteran when it comes to near death experiences.