I've always felt like a 堅い old bird... but suddenly I'm not invincible - it's terrifying: SANDRA HOis the Vogue model turned author who, at 82, prided herself on her vitality but she 明らかにする／漏らすs how a 落ちる that put her in hospital changed everything

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Although it is already February, Christmas is still branded on my mind ― and on my behind. Just over a week before Christmas, I took a 飛行機で行くing 宙返り／暴落する, 武器 flailing, and landed on my 味方する in the street.

My husband Michael and I had been to a party ― I was the driver, on elderflower cordial ― and we were walking 支援する to our car.

We’d started out across a wide, busy road that was 簡潔に 解放する／自由な of traffic when I saw a car turn out of a garage opposite and into our path. I swung 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to get 支援する on to the pavement, and Michael and I accidentally 衝突，墜落d into each other.

I was knocked for six.

I got up a little shakily. One shoe had flown off and I grabbed it and my handbag and hopped 支援する on to the pavement, gingerly checking myself. I felt winded and a bit sore, as though I’d have an interestingly-bruised 底（に届く） the next day ― but other than that I was 承認する. I’d got away with it, I thought. Phew.

Ten days after her 落ちる over Christmas, Sandra Howard (pictured) was unable to move 予定 to the 苦痛

Ten days later, I could hardly move for the searing 苦痛. It was agonising.

I thank my lucky 星／主役にするs that, so far in life, I have not had to become used to 苦痛, for I 設立する it 脅すing now to be so incapacitated by it. 燃やすing 軸s and daggers all along my lower 支援する and buttocks and radiating out 負かす／撃墜する both 脚s.

There was a disorientating mix of numbness and pins and needles in one of my feet, too, as though it wasn’t やめる sure whether it was dead or alive. Ibuprofen just didn’t touch it.

At first, I couldn’t imagine what on earth I’d done. It didn’t make sense, when the 落ちる had been more than a week ago. But the reality was that I could barely walk, let alone bend 負かす／撃墜する to put a turkey in the oven.

Typically, the 苦痛 had kicked in at the worst possible time. Our children and their families were arriving for Christmas, our son and his family all the way from the 明言する／公表するs. Even to 抱擁する them was agony.

I could do very little at this point except 沈む 負かす／撃墜する on the nearest 議長，司会を務める and smile through gritted teeth while the children got stuck into the 世帯 and Christmas chores.

Somehow, they managed to を取り引きする their babies and energetic 禁止（する）d of kids while doing the laundry and dishing up terrific meals for us all. I was in far too much 苦痛 to feel 有罪の.

一方／合間, Michael began trying every avenue to get 医療の help. The doctors’ 外科 was の近くにd over the public holidays, and the person at 111 asked me a 集まり of questions which the next person they put me on to 敏速に repeated.

Sandra was seen by a 顧問 on ボクシング Day. That 始める，決める in 動議 an MRI ざっと目を通す and finally, almost two weeks after her 落ちる, she was 診断するd with a fractured sacrum and packed off to a hospital bed.

?I could go to the nearest hospital, the second person said finally ― but we knew I’d be waiting there for hours, and then probably need an MRI ざっと目を通す that couldn’t be done for やめる a while anyway.

As Michael rang, I felt so helpless, 粘着するing to the nearest piece of furniture and struggling with 苦痛 that couldn’t really have got much worse. I couldn’t stand without feeling queasy.

It was our Left-leaning daughter, Larissa, who 勧めるd us to 支払う／賃金 for a 私的な ざっと目を通す.

‘You’ve got to go 私的な and have an 緊急の 協議,’ she said. ‘It’s the only way.

‘And before you start resisting and remonstrating, remember there will be one いっそう少なく person q ueueing up in A&E if you 支払う／賃金 to be seen. You’ve got some 保険 cover ― you should jolly 井戸／弁護士席 use it!’

This from a working mother of three who gives up any precious 解放する／自由な time to help out at a food bank. I did remonstrate, but a bit half-heartedly, and in the 直面する of her firmness we did as told.

I was seen by a 顧問 on ボクシング Day. That 始める，決める in 動議 an MRI ざっと目を通す and finally, almost two weeks after my 落ちる, I was 診断するd with a fractured sacrum and packed off to a hospital bed.

I was one of the fortunate ones ― thanks to our health 保険, it was a 私的な bed ― but I couldn’t help worrying about all those who might have taken a 類似の 宙返り／暴落する over the holidays and would still be stuck waiting and in 苦痛.

READ MORE:?'I enjoyed the wolf whistles... it's not 権利 but life is easier when you're pretty': Former Vogue model SANDRA HOWARD 明らかにする／漏らすs that losing her 青年 left her feeling an empty 爆撃する

Sandra Howard was photographed in London, Paris and New York, even appearing on the cover of U.S. Vogue several times. Sandra pictured left 老年の 26 and 権利 老年の 82

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The sacrum wasn’t a 団体／死体 part I remembered from school biology, but it 速く became a very familiar part of my anatomy. It’s the 保護物，者-形態／調整d bone at the end of your spine, nestling between the hips and 大（公）使館員d to the pelvis.

Fractures and broken bones as a result of a 落ちる are most ありふれた in those 老年の over 60, usually those who have some degree of osteoporosis or bone loss. At the age of 82, I was a prime 候補者.

Nothing could be done except to let it 傷をいやす／和解させる on its own and, 一方／合間, to get on 最高の，を越す of the 苦痛.

The fact it was my first ever broken bone was of little なぐさみ. I’ve never had a bone 濃度／密度 ざっと目を通す and have always felt like a 堅い old bird.

I might have been waif-like in my modelling days, but I have always been robustly healthy through the １０年間s. Even my little 一区切り／（ボクシングなどの）試合 of Covid nearly a year ago was 極小の, and a ぐずぐず残る cough last summer turned out to be nothing more 悪意のある than a 穏やかな chest 感染.

I have always 急ぐd about, packed everything in and felt younger than my years (though it helps not to peer too closely in the mirror).

Only a few months ago, I was having a 開始する，打ち上げる party for the my 最新の 調書をとる／予約する, Love At War, darting about welcoming all our friends.

And yet, as I left hospital last month and the friendly nurse held out a hefty 捕らえる、獲得する of painkillers, each item carefully checked and 調印するd for, I felt old and 攻撃を受けやすい. Weeks on, I am still 動揺させるing with pills.

It turns out I am not invincible after all, and it is a sobering lesson. Suddenly, I feel my years.

I 辞退する to 収容する／認める I’m frail ― not yet ― but I can see, almost touch, the time when I might be. Spending a few days in hospital at this age, felled by 苦痛, is like seeing a deepl y unwelcome 未来 up の近くに.

Will there come a time when I have to be ‘looked after’? My fractured sacrum has been a hint of what it might feel like for me or Michael, 81, to become a 重荷（を負わせる） to our children ― and it’s given me a real fright.

This month, I’ve started walking about again; slowly, warily. Seeing my hunched reflection in a shop window was a terrible shock. I looked like a really old, old lady ― not the woman who, just a few months ago, walked tall and felt 罰金.

My fractured sacrum has been a hint of what it might feel like for me or Michael, 81, to become a 重荷（を負わせる） to our children ― and it’s given me a real fright (Pictured: Sandra and Michael Howard together)?

Have I got to get used to the fact of my world 縮むing? Do I have to 辞職する myself to living a いっそう少なく ambitious life? Not yet: not if ― and it’s a very big if ― I have anything to do with it! I will mend from this 注目する，もくろむ-開始 宙返り／暴落する, take more care and be more aware.

The thought of 存在 unable to get to the shops, to cook, or to have にわか雨s instead of climbing into a bath, is very unwelcome. But I’m not there just yet.

A 脅す like this does 軍隊 you to re-評価する, however ― to be aware of ぼんやり現れるing 落し穴s and to count your 存在するing blessings.

Michael and I still have our sight and 審理，公聴会 (井戸／弁護士席, sort of: a lot of teasing goes on between us about our misheard words). We still, thankfully, have all our marbles, give or take the 半端物 embarrassing memory lapse, 特に for 指名するs.

And yet those painkillers shrouded my brain in a 肉親，親類d of 霧 that shredded my 集中 and left me feeling exhausted. My mind is 詐欺師 now but that, too, felt like a 汚い 警告.

We still feel incredibly lucky with our three wonderful children, all married and 主要な 十分な and 生産力のある lives, and our seven lively grandchildren ― 範囲ing from 中央の-20s to seven months old ― to dote on and adore.

I can get over one 落ちる, although as you get older there are health 関心s that start to 開始する up の中で 知識s. Two of my oldest friends from our modelling days have both been through the mill recently.

Paulene 石／投石する, a former Vogue cover model, tripped and broke both her 膝s a couple of months ago. She was far more incapacitated than I was, and it’s only her 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の resilience that pulled her through.

Michael and I still have our sight and 審理，公聴会 (井戸／弁護士席, sort of: a lot of teasing goes on between us about our misheard words). We still, thankfully, have all our marbles, give or take the 半端物 embarrassing memory lapse, 特に for 指名するs

My other oldest friend Dotti, or Dorothy 社債 as she was in her modelling heyday, has just been in hospital with horrible diverticulitis, a digestive 条件, and she also needs a new hip.

非，不，無 of us can believe that age is catching up with us like this. Each 後退 feels like such a nuisance, keeping us from the 十分な, busy lives we have built for ourselves.

All of us lean on each other and find ways through, and we are lucky in that regard, too. Dotti called me for a 相互の moan and relayed how she’d returned a call from Paulene that went unanswered.

We later discovered ― and this had me in very painful fits of laughter ― that, unbeknown to her, Dotti had rung while Paulene was in church, in the middle of 説 a 祈り for the two of us.

Dotti and I were both touched. Never, to our knowledge, had we been prayed for before ― while Paulene saw the （犯罪の）一味ing phone as a good 調印する.

(The vicar, however, took a different 見解（をとる）, and asked the congregation to make sure they had their phones switched off before entering the church!)

I am so 感謝する for friends and family who 決起大会／結集させるd 一連の会議、交渉／完成する me. When Sholto, my eldest, was home from Dubai for a precious few days, he still 設立する time to visit me in hospital, bringing a delicious 捕らえる、獲得する of goodies. And, of course, the doctors and nurses were wonderfully attentive and professional. Between them all, I don’t feel so struck 負かす／撃墜する.

But I do feel chastened. I’m a 自然に active person and to be suddenly so 扶養家族 on others, slowed up and 否定するd the chance to be 生産力のある, has been both humbling and hard to take.

It’s long past Christmas, but all this has made me 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる even more one of my special 現在のs ― an Apple watch which senses if you’ve fallen, buzzes on your wrist and dials your nearest next of 肉親，親類 or 999 if you don’t 答える／応じる.

Even better, my hospital 区 had a notice on the 塀で囲む by my bed, ‘Call don’t 落ちる’.

I can’t recommend that advice 高度に enough.