Man. I am sitting here, thinking, and I am all confused right now.
I am a disabled person, and I have to use a wheelchair because I have cerebral palsy; and I have trouble talking; but despite my "handicaps" I have it pretty good. I can, at least, see, hear, think, and write (sort of; my writing isn't that great). I am also a voracious reader; I always have my nose in a book....
Today I was at the local Golden Corral, and this young couple came in; and they really got me to thinking. The man was healthy, but his friend (girlfriend? wife? aquaintance?) was not. The girl was in a wheelchair, and she was on an I.V.; there was an I.V. line in her chest; and she was also wearing oxygen prongs in her nose. She was awfully thin, and she looked--well, pretty sick. She did NOT look well AT all. She was very weak, and when she talked she talked just above a whisper; one could hardly hear her.
Yet, despite how she looked, the man was really good to her. He wheeled her wheelchair to the table and had the one line person carry their tray; and he asked her what she wanted; and he went to the buffet and got her some veggies. He then went back to their table and helped his friend eat. He smiled at her, and he kissed her; and he was being all sweet and caring towards her.
Whenever she needed help, the man was right there, at her side, taking care of whatever she needed; and he never complained, not once. It was rather incredible to see the love and caring between these two. But seeing all of the medical paraphenalia connected to the woman made a lot of people uneasy; besides the I.V. tubing and the oxygen tubes in her nose, she also had a catheter bag connected to the wheelchair, and she was so thin she resembled a human skeleton; she looked like she might have had cancer--or maybe AIDS. The clothes she wore hung on her like a loose paper sack, and her arms and legs were so thin they resembled sticks. She really looked bad. She looked like she was about to enter death's door. And she had a whole collection of pill bottles stacked upon the table; she was on a lot of medication. I didn't know exactly what was wrong with her, but I could tell that whatever it was, it was definitely something serious.
The man saw me, and he came over, where he said hello to me, and he introduced himself. His name was Roberto, and he said that the woman he was with was his wife; and her name was M'bootie (spelled wrong)..or something like that. He said she had just gotten out of the hospital only a few days before, and he was celebrating her release from the hospital by taking her out to eat. He said she had been very sick for a long time, and she still faced a very long recovery time ahead; and because of it she was very weak and still needed to be on I.V. feedings; and was just only recently able to eat again by mouth. She also had to be on oxygen because her lungs were terribly weak, and she had lost a lot of weight. She had some sort of flesh eating disease, and she was still suffering from the after-effects of the disease. She had nearly died several times, and it would be a very long time before she was back to her former self, he told me. (They had a little son, but he was at a friend's house while they'd gone out to eat. The boy was just over a year old.)
I wanted to say hello to Roberto's wife, but I didn't know how to go about it. To see her so sick and so weak bothered me; I was afraid I would say (or do) the wrong thing, and then she (or he) would be mad; so I decided to keep quiet. I figured it was the best thing to do.
But still..I didn't realize just how bad some people had it until I saw this young woman sitting in her wheelchair, hooked up to tubes. She was young, but she looked more like a senior citizen; her face was all full of wrinkles, and the skin was all pale and unhealthy looking. She looked closer to 60 or 70, and she looked like she was clearly in pain; her eyes were bright with pain, and she looked like she was about to throw up a couple of times.
I wonder why some people have to suffer so needlessly. It just doesn't seem fair, especially if the person is young, like this young woman happened to be. She didn't deserve all of this sickness, just like I didn't deserve to be born with my cerebral palsy; but I guess there is a reason for things in life. Some people live, and others die; and some people are healthy, and others are struggling. It is part of the human chain of events in a person's life, and it makes me think of just how fortunate I am. I could have been like that woman. That could have easily been me; but I am glad it wasn't. Still, I feel sorry for her, and I feel sorry for her husband; that must be so HARD for them!!!....
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Author's Note: The idea for this story came about from an experience I had last night at work. My twin sister and I helped the servers roll silverware (we do this just about every Tuesday to help them out, even though I was off), and this beautiful young woman with terminal cancer came to the restaurant. She was only 32, and her family took her out for her birthday (her birthday was last week, but she had a blood transfusion that day.) She wasn't expected to live the month. She had, at best, just 3 weeks left. She was very cachexic (abnormally thin), and was using a wheelchair, she was so weak; and she had I.V. tubing in her left bicep. She was on a morphine drip, and you could clearly see the pain in her young face. It really got me to thinking just how bad some people have it compared to what I do. Sure, I may be on a crutch due to arthritis and be in pain, but I'm sure my pain is nothing compared to what this young woman must be experiencing. It made me cry, to think that this beautiful soul had so little time left, and her family was only trying to give her some semblence of normalcy before she dies.
The woman's mother was having a hard time trying to keep back the tears; she had already lost two baby boys (both stillborn), and she is about to lose another child to cancer. She had five kids, and has lost two (and is about to lose a third--Lisa, the young woman). I was about to cry, myself; it broke my heart to see how this lovely lady was suffering. I had tears in my eyes when I saw her.
The only good thing about this: the young woman is a Christian. She is going to be with Jesus.
Lisa: I will never forget you; you are most definitely in my prayers. I just met you yesterday, but already I love you so much, and you are in my thoughts and prayers. (((HUGS))) to you, my friend!! Karen Lynn. >tears<
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Reviewed by Deirdre Barringer
10/9/2002
You never do realize how lucky you are till you see someone worse off, it's true. This was very sweet and heartfelt.
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