The Sweet Lady

Dear Reader,

Sweet Lady was Mom's patient a few years ago. When my mom is working, she is an Occupational Therapist. My mom took Sweet Lady to be her patient for some extra work, it was her only patient at the time because I was sick. She was normally at home taking care of me. My mom hasn't had a patient since Sweet Lady.

I used to go with Mom to Sweet Lady's house. It was very clean and there was a carpeted living-room to the right when you walked in where nobody was allowed. It always had vacuum lines on it. I would just say "Hi" to her and either read or play Webkinz on her computer while Mom gave her therapy. I didn't really talk much to her, just the usual pleasantries, ask her about the pictures on her refrigerator, stuff like that, but I liked her. I was happy to see her when we went to her house.

My mom kept in-touch with her via email. When I got MDS (Myelodysplastic Syndrome) and had to get a bone marrow transplant and was living at Ronald McDonald House she sent me lots of cards. I think it is safe to say she sent at least one card a week, probably every time Mom got the mail there was a card from here there. I wrote her emails sometimes, mostly to thank her for the cards and the prayers.

Mom found out that Sweet Lady died about a week ago. A woman called my mom and said, "You were on my mom's call list..."

We went to the funeral today. Once we got in the church, we were quickly met by a woman, who I found out was the Lady's daughter. She looked like she had been doing alright keeping her tears inside her. She didn't have a tissue in her hand or a red nose or anything. My mom introduced herself, turned and started introducing me, "and this is my daughter..." and I said, "I'm ..." and as soon as I got my name out the daughter's eyes were filled with tears, and she put her hand on her mouth and said, "Oh. This is her." as if I was something so precious. She was so happy I had come.

We got into the church area where the service was to be held and I met the rest of her family, mostly all of them seem to know who I was. Sweet Lady had told them of me. They had kind of, "You're the one." reactions. Like I was something really great and lovely, much better than a celebrity.

Mom and I got into the church and got seated. There were 6 people besides us there that weren't family. It seemed like 4 neighbor kind of people, 1 friend, and that friend's daughter or care-taker. The 4 neighbor people were all quite elderly looking and so was the 1 friend, but the 4 neighbor people whispered loudly to each other before and after the service. I guess the weren't very close to Sweet Lady. They didn't seem very sad at all. Maybe they had been expecting her to die, she was 2 days away from 85 years old... I wasn't surprised in her death either, but I was a lot sadder. I barely talked the whole time except for introducing myself to family and saying, "Nice to meet you."

After the service ended, we went out of the church to give condolences to some of the family. They thanked us so much for coming, especially me. The daughter teared up again thanking me, but she is a person that dries her tears quickly, they were stuffed away by the time she turned from me. The grandson thanked me too with tears glistening in his eyes, he was very close to Sweet Lady. They made sure that I knew how much it meant that I came.

Mom told me that the Sweet Lady really loved me, and that is why her kids and those close to her were so happy that I came. I really meant a lot to her. I was quite confused. I expressed to Mom that I had no idea why that was, I didn't do anything.... Mom told me that I will never know or understand the effect I have on people. I'm quite sure that I agree with her on that, but I will always remember Sweet Lady, the cards she sent, the vacuum lines on her blue carpet, and the look that the people close to her gave me at her funeral.

May you have a great day,

Sincerely, Miss E.