John - we called him John because his Polish name was almost unpronounceable - was sitting in the waiting room of our local cottage hospital waiting, quietly and patiently to be attended to.
Each time his accompanying workmate approached the reception desk, on John's behalf, he was asked to wait until a soon-to-arrive accident victim had been seen to. The expected casualty, it seems, had fallen from the church tower at Landrake, while carrying out maintenance of sorts, and would obviously be in a bad way.
Little did the nurse realise that it was John they were waiting for. He had fallen from the top of a tower scaffolding - slipping on some greasy boards - crashed partly through the church roof below, tumbling down the remainder of the roof and hitting the concrete path at ground level. He eventually came to a halt halfway out in the churchyard, after rolling several yards on the slightly downhill slope - falling a distance of almost 50 feet.
Eventually, the receptionist realised that John was their 'expected casualty' and had him in for x-rays and a general examination, astonished that all he received from his fall was some slight bruising.
Although beginning to stiffen up a little, he was able to walk away.
We weren't certain whether he had had bad luck to fall, or good luck to get away with such slight injuries. It certainly was a case of 'as luck would have it'.
ROY WILLIAMS
Callington