December 26, the day after Christmas, I watched a man camping behind me climb on the roof of his motorhome and try to brush off several inches of snow and about three inches of ice. He and his wife had been here a month but I did not learn their names. The seat of his pants was wet and I figured he had either sat or fallen on his butt. His wife climbed half way up the ladder and handed him a small bucket of warm water which he poured on his satellite dish. He needed to lower the dish so they could leave the campground.

After attempting to thaw the dish he crawled on hands and knees across snow and ice to the rear ladder and climbed down. Both the man and his wife went inside their motorhome and I returned to my motorhome.

A few minutes later the wife went to the campground store and got some Rolaids for her husband because he had bad heartburn and when she returned to their motorhome her husband was laying on the floor with a heart attack. She stepped outside and screamed and two campground workers ran in their motorhome. One man gave CPR while the other called 911 and went to the campground's entrance to guide in the emergency people. Two fire trucks responded followed by an EMT unit. The man was pronounced dead. He was only in his mid-fifties.

I don't guess there is a moral to the story other than don't exert yourself by doing hard physical labor if your body is not use to it. We are warned not to shovel snow or do any work above our abilities and this man might had died anyway, but he hastened his death. A few years ago we were in the same situation with snow and ice on the motorhome but instead of trying to clear it off we waited three days and let it melt.