Thank You

The start of a new year is always filled with hope, with expectation, with dreams of good days ahead. I tend to start each new year with a business plan and few personal resolutions. But more than that, I start each new year with visions of my blooming garden in my head. We've just passed the winter solstice; the ground is cold & lifeless, and I'm ready for all things warm & colorful. I think the vision of my blooming garden encompasses more than my itching to dig in the dirt, though. I think it's my mental picture that everything's coming up roses.

But this year, already, we've learned that two of our favorite people are counting their days. And there aren't many left.

One of our favorite aunts - our young & healthy & oh-so-beautiful Auntie Linda - just learned that the pain in her elbow was cancer, and it's not just in her elbow. It's all over. The doctors give her two weeks. Two weeks. Can you imagine??? No, you can't. I can't. I can't imagine how she is dealing with it, nor how I would deal with it if I were her. But Linda - amazing, incredible Linda - is embracing death just as she embraced life. I'm surprised, and yet somehow not surprised, that she is dying just as she lived, in gracious, breath-taking beauty.

And our neighbor - our thoughtful & friendly neighbor - learned that he has Lou Gehrig's disease, just as he celebrated his 50th birthday. The effects of the disease are already pronounced, and he has to retire from his career as a firefighter. Can you imagine??? No, you can't imagine, and neither can I.

We all think we're on the "95 Year Plan". And then one day, we learn we're not. Thank goodness, in the midst of that horrible terrible news, we are surrounded not only by the people who have long loved us, but also by a world of caring strangers.

Today I'd like to raise a toast to that wide assortment of people who have dedicated their lives to caring for folks who are suddenly at the end of theirs. Here's to the doctors & nurses & all the others who extend medical care & human kindness in the most difficult of circumstances. Not just once or twice, but day-in & day-out to countless precious people. Today, you are a gift to two people I love, and I thank you. I wish I could say it more emphatically and with greater eloquence. Thank you, thank you, thank you oh-so-much.