I kept meeting Laurie's mom Jean at monthly guest speaking gigs at a local church. After each service, she'd hug me and say, "We must schedule an aura portrait for Laurie at her nursing home in Everett." Finally, we made the date, and carpooled an hour away to the nursing care facility. Entering the facility, I did not know what to expect, because...
Last time I saw Laurie was over 2 years ago when she gave a talk at the Center for Happiness in Anacortes. 55 steps up in a grand old building downtown is a cool ballroom with windows open to a town-wide view. 55 steps is a lot to climb for anyone. But in this case, Laurie was in a wheelchair and without use of her legs, so 2 brawny guys placed a golden crown on her head and carried her up the 55 steps. Her Highness held forth with humor and great stories and many hugs. Her talk, "From Cool to Drool," was a hit. She spoke on her medical adventures after a brain aneurysm sidelined her at the age of 40, while in the prime of her career as a talented and popular radio personality (this was the "cool" part), and while pregnant with her second child. Now 49, her body has been breaking down with incidents and accidents ever since.
I entered her room, and was met with this visage: Bright, smiling face and eyes and a shock of pink hair, all in in a quadriplegic body. A "speaking" tube was fastened to her neck by an elastic choker like some gaudy bauble.
She is in this particular facility 90 minutes from her family of 2 kids and husband because a life saving tracheotomy was performed, and this facility is one of 4 in the state to take on "trach patients." Several weeks back, she was given 4 hours to live unless she chose to have this surgery. She agreed to it for the sake of her family, and here she is. Except for her head and a few fingers on one hand, she's unable to move her body.
I set up my painting board and paints on the hospital tray table and painted and talked and danced around the room while she oohed and ahhed and finally declared: "You get me! You really get me."
It was one of the most inspiring and fun aura portrait sessions I've ever done--no exaggeration. Yet, it was also more bitter than sweet because of her situation. She was a bright, colorful beam of light trapped in a rigid body.
When it was time to leave, I couldn't bear it. I wanted to pitch a tent in her room and set up residence. On the way home, mom Jean and I cooked up a plan for me to visit with Laurie on a regular basis in order to find out what she has yet to contribute. To date, we've had several visits, and I must say I am always blown away by her honesty, inspiration, and outrageous humor.
Via our conversations, here are some things she would like the world--and especially the medical world--to know:
1. "I am not a game. I feel I am treated sometimes as a game to be controlled: Do this thing or that thing to me, manage me, even shut me up by taking out my speaking tube for hours at a time. I am a human. I am not an inconvenience."
2. "I'm still me. I am here. I have a voice, even though its gnarly." So therefore...
3. "Look me in the face. See me for who I am...maybe even who I was. I was a vibrant career woman. I was a wild child. I still am. I am also a mom. I am a human doing the best I can in these weird circumstances.
There's lots more where that came from, and we are cooking up some groovy plans to get her voice heard because...
She is alive and therefore still has much to contribute. I promise to keep you posted on our exciting, fun, funny, and outrageous plans. World domination is next, I tell ya! Well...maybe not. ;-)
Look people, be yourself. Cherish your lives. And look for humanity and inspiration in weird and unlikely places such as nursing homes. Or maybe your own home and neighborhood.
Blessings sent out to all who are already so blessed, Elke