DRUNK, HIGH OR SAVED

I was blessed with a gift when this journey began: and her name is Yvonne.

During our tenure at Christus Santa Rosa ICU in San Antonio, my friend Le offered her parent's home up to me.

"Stay with them! They are less than three miles from the hospital, they have a guest house!" she insisted.

After a few harrowing nights in the Holiday Inn Tropicana, resulting in Pappa Yale calling maintenance for me to get hot water about 40 times, I just couldn't handle it anymore. It was lonely...and cold showers, let's not even.

So I considered Le's offer. In retrospect, it was one of those things you, um, probably offer and don't really mean...and then someone takes you up on! I kid! I kid! But really...

So I called Yvonne.

And she took me in.

Yvonne and Lew - they would leave me a key, I would come home at 8 PM (after shift change, once I knew MJ was in good hands) and my bed would be turned down, a space heather in the bathroom to keep it toasty, soup or snacks set out for me...they babied me. Because, whether I wanted to admit it or not, I needed it.

The first night I came home to them, Yvonne offered me food.

"I had a protein bar earlier, I'm sorry I'm not really hungry..." I replied.

"Oh LORD Lew, she eats like Levonne! I'll get some cheese..." she responded with a flip of her hand.

I would fall asleep to the sound of Yvonne practicing the responsorial psalm for upcoming Sunday's mass...and then wake up at 3 AM and head to the ICU to start my day with MJ.

For 8 weeks, this was our life together.

Yvonne is a spirit - she has this way about her, flitting around with this loftiness, this energy and enthusiasm and care and kindness. And she pretty much adpoted me (and MJ) without a second thought.

One particularly hard night, I came home and we sat down with a bottle of wine.

And she told me a story.

Yvonne said:

"Native Americans believe that there is a sharp stone in your belly.

When life, when nature, when emotions turn...so does the stone.

It pokes you. You clutch at it.

You choose: pay attention to the stone, or ignore.

Because the stone, it is persistent and will continue to turn...and it wears. It will wear so much that it becomes smooth.

And then your stone, your sharp stone, it is of no use."

Intuition, my friends. It is a mighty thing.

MJ, my love, the stone is turning.

And I know better than to ignore it.