Everyone,
I’m waiting at Austin Bergstrohm airport for my flight home. Instead of spending the weekend again in Austin we opted for Fredericksberg. It’s a German town in the middle of the Texas hill country. Damn hot! It makes a wall air conditioner the greatest luxury on earth.
When I first got to Core on Friday afternoon I saw Uma playing scrabble with a staff member in the rec room. She had blue and blonde hair – Uma, not the staff member. She said, “I wanted to shake things up!” In August we’re attending a wedding in Canada for her cousins. She says she’ll dye it back by then. I really don’t care. She’s the most beautiful woman in the world to me.
She’s doing very, very well. It’s slow, grueling work but she never shirks it. She enjoys the weekends when I’m there and actually gets excited to go back to “work” on Monday morning. The only thing she doesn’t like is the weekends when I’m not there – she has little work to do then. But she’s working her mind and body so hard that she actually needs the rest.
In some ways, just like the TV news, it’s so much more easy to report the horrible things, the tragic things. But it would be a bad thing on my part not to tell you how well she is doing. On top of her speaking, walking, and range of motion increase in her shoulder and hand, her spirits and her emotional state are stabilizing. You can imagine the attitude and perspective shift you’d undergo in her circumstances. Despair permeates. It’s a constant battle but she fights it and gets better at fighting it all the time.
Last week the Burglars of Hamm theater company held a fund-raiser for Uma at a local theater called Sacred Fools. It was hilarious, unique, smart, raucous. Just over $3000.00 was raised. That’s six full days of housing, board, and 30 hours of therapy for Uma. In reverse chronological order I have to publicly thank: Sacred Fools, Burglars of Hamm, Matt and Carol Almos, the Bootleg Theater, Tamar, Erik, Jessica, Alicia, Marie, Eleanor, (ok this is going to get ridiculous because so many people have been involved in these fund-raisers), Silvie, Phil, the bands, the crew…..wherever you found the love in your hearts and the time on your hands to help Uma, that truly is a divine place. May it grow and bless you, too.
I want to tell everyone how wonderful my family is. My cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews, brother, sister, in-laws – all contributed and continue to contribute to Uma’s health. Not small contributions. This is generosity personified. These are great, great people and I can’t wait to see them and thank them in person two weeks from now at our annual family reunion.
When Uma collapsed so violently in front of me four and a half years ago, the first chance I got to call someone, I called my parents. I didn’t call a friend or another doctor. When they finally took Uma back into surgery I called my mom and my dad. Why would I do that? Because out of all the people on earth, I knew they would speak to me with true, lasting love. I knew they would share my pain with me and lessen my burden. I knew they would be there for me. They have always been there for me from my first cry until now. I’m as full grown as any man that ever lived but I’m still their youngest child, their youngest son. And now that I’ve had to sacrifice on behalf of someone else, I have a small inkling of what they’ve gone through for me, what it has cost them, and what joys and healing it has brought to their lives.
To my parents, my family, my extended family, my theater family, all the strangers that have donated to Uma that are now my virtual family I want to tell you how full my heart is with thanks. She is beginning to live fully and we could not have done this without each of you.
All my love,
John
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