Back in December, I started doing little blood pressure clinics at an elderly hi-rise in Carbon County. It was a project I initiated for my job, to "get our information out there". It was my first appointment in a new setting...not much of a response and most of those who did want their blood pressures checked paid little attention to me or the mere idea "they'd ever need Hospice"...yes, sometimes it is a "scary" word when in actuality, it's a wonderful source of help and relief...well, anyway, an eloquent woman with silver hair and perfectly applied geranium pink lipstick sat waiting patiently until it was her turn...for she was the last person on the list. The others hurried through...she was interested in my "story" and she was unlike any of those others before her...as I looked at her and as she spoke to me...I could see the beauty and class she possessed. Her gray-blue eyes sparkled as she spoke to me, her soft voice telling me she wished she knew of Hospice thirty plus years ago when her dear husband was dying from lung cancer...I cannot remember her name...I cannot remember her husband's name...but I'll never forget her face...or her story. She told me she met him, the love of her life when she was 20...he was ten years her senior and those sparkling eyes danced as she told the tale. He was an architect...who designed beautiful buildings in Philadelphia...and he was a kind and gregarious man...and that she loved him madly...they had two beautiful daughters and lived a wonderful life...story-book style...she worked as a secretary in a business office but never felt it a gratifying career...but she chose to stay on anyway, because she wanted to be productive and that was where her skills like typing and shorthand were best utilized...life went on joyously for this lovely woman until her hubby began to cough...and the cough worsened...they attributed this to the "city" air...although he smoked heavily for years she told me....but back then, everyone did...they used to visit our area in the summers...so that is what drew them to relocate near Tamaqua...so her sweetheart could breath better in a cleaner air community...by this time he was in his fifties...she was about my age, 44...he picked up another architectural position nearby...and life continued...and so did that cough...and those two lovely daughters grew up and went off...married and happily ever after followed them, also. And the couple? His condition worsened and he soon had to retire and by his late fifties, he became oxygen dependent and discovered his cancer. She stayed by his side with love...and he continued, even through his sickness to profess his love to her...it was his sixtieth birthday...she sat watching a football game with him as his condition weakened...soon, he was in the hospital and his talking wasn't even comprehensible, due to the effects of the raging cancer within...she told me she held his hand and he took hers and with his index finger, traced the words "I love you" on her palm...and within minutes...took his last breath...in all my years of nursing...never have I heard such a beautiful tale of parting...I used to trace my finger along my children's backs when they were little...it made me think of our silly game...how they'd have to guess and figure out what I was writing on their little backs...and I would often trace the words "I love you"...and Adam and Jordan always figured that out, too. I wish I could have felt those words one more time on my hand....or on my back...My parting with Adam was sad...I had no parting because it was sudden and unseen...I hope angels tell Adam my story...and that he remembers the tracings on his back...the "I love you's"...because thinking of this lady's story...made me think of you, Adam...I love you...I love you...I love you...
p.s. her story went on...and she reinvented herself...because she was only 50 when he passed...perhaps that'll be another blog...
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