Tell Your Story

I met a friend for lunch today - the teacher whose classroom I visited this year. We had worked together at the Water District years ago and hadn't had a real conversation in a very long time. And what a gift today was. We caught up on things and then she asked me about Vern and how he was diagnosed ... and I shared. And shared. And shared. And bless her heart, she listened and let me talk. I can't remember the last time anyone asked me to share my story. Or perhaps someone did and I did my normal thing and turned the conversation back around to them. But today was different. She listened. She asked questions. She shared, too. And it was beautiful. Thank you, dear Catherine.

This just reinforces how very important it is to be able to tell our story. To speak their name. No matter how long it has been. It felt so good.

And there was another revelation today. I'm going to write a letter to the vascular surgeon who held Vern's heart in his hands and brought him back to me after he bled out two days after the initial cancer surgery. It happened way back on May 7, 2006 and I know he may not remember ... but I suspect that he will. I think there is some kind of connection that occurs when a doctor saves someone's life like that. My conversation with Dr. C popped into my thoughts the other day out of the blue, so I googled to see if he was still practicing; it appears that he is. So today when I shared with Catherine what happened, it reminded me that I had wanted to contact him or write a letter. To thank him. I can still remember the exact moment when he walked into the waiting room. He said my name and walked right over to sit down next to me. He touched my hand and said that Vern was alive but he had gone into cardiac arrest, died on the table and he had been able to bring him back by pumping Vern's heart with his hands. He also shared that Vern had been given 4 units of the wrong blood during the chaos that occurred in his MICU room while he was bleeding out. He didn't need to share those details, but he did. It's some kind of sign, I think, that I need to thank him. Twelve years later. But perhaps it's important for him to hear it now.  I will do that this week.

Another good thing today was that I asked Catherine if she'd be able to connect me this Fall with that sweet little boy in her classroom who loves the Golden Knights. And she can!  I want to give him tickets to one of the hockey games so he can see a game in person at T-Mobile. My heart just knows that this is what I need to do and that it will be very important to Levi.

So today was a really lovely day. Important conversations. Important decisions.