My Blog For You

As I was going over the 520 highway (floating bridge) on my way home to get a quick shower and a bite to eat before coming back to the hospital to spell Jessica and Nana from their long day with Cheryl.  I got a phone call on my cell.  It was Jessica on the phone saying…” Abba, Abba…We got a liver.  You need to come back as quick as you can.  They are getting Mommy prepped for surgery.”  From our meetings with the surgeon who would do the procedure we knew that someone had died.  The team was now in the process of harvesting the organs from that man or woman and were expediting them via leir jet sending them to wherever they needed to go, In this case Seattle Washington for the purposes of transplantation.  This liver organ had Cheryl’s name on it, her only hope.  We found out later the woman who had died was in a head on car collision.  The police arrived, saw the woman’s license, and notified the proper authorities so they could put the petal to the metal and get the woman who had died to the hospital for the surgery to harvest various organs of her body she had released previously.  We were told she was in Anchorage Alaska.  Between the ambulance run to the hospital and the extraction of the liver, putting the organ in a cooler container or ice chest of some kind to keep the organ cool the clock had started and there was about 8 hours from harvesting to re-insertion or the organ would expire.  The liver for the surgery was either near or in the UW hospital.  All I knew is that I had just gone over the bridge from Seattle going east.  I quickly got off the first offramp, got to the light, turned left then another left and I was back on the 520 Westbound to the hospital.  In that time, I called my boss to let him know Cheryl was going into surgery and that I would not be in the following day.  I got off the bridge offramp to the hospital and to the parking area for patients.  I then ran as fast as I had in a long, long time to her room.  Cheryl was still there but we had truly little time.  We had waited many years to get to this pivotal moment in time.  God had seen us thru and now we were on the edge of a tremendous time in both our lives.  What do you say to each other in that moment?       I know we hugged as she had already been administered some drugs to relax her as she was almost all ready to go.  I think we told each other how much we loved each other me doing much of the talking as she was kind of out of it by the time I arrived at her bedside.  I remember saying one specific thing, “Cookie, I will be right here waiting to see your smiling face on the other side of this… Those words would ring in my head all night after I released her hand as I watched them wheel her into surgery.  I was not sure if that would be the last time, I would ever see her look into my eyes or not.           I hoped not… After we parted holding hands, kissing her hands, her cheek several times, telling her how much I loved her it was time, and she was wheeled thru the double doors leading to the surgery center.  She was now in the hands of the nurses, doctors, and staff behind those double doors.  I stood there, looking at those doors and thought to myself, “Is that the last time I would ever see her alive?”  Soon after that exchange with Cheryl Jessica, Estra and I walked to the waiting area.  As we prepared for this evening, I remember playing back in my mind all our discussions and deliberations with the surgeon and staff, I remembered how he would come out from surgery to meet with us to give us an update on her status.  I just simply in my heart of hearts put her again in the hands of Almighty God knowing his will was best for her and for me.  That act of surrender seemed to give me the peace that passes all my understanding.  It was what I needed to continue.  I don’t know how but soon after, somehow all our closest friends, friends of Cheryl, people I had never met, nurses, receptionists, friends of Jessica’s from school or work, somehow, they knew Cheryl was in surgery.  I think within two hours there were fifty or sixty of those wonderful people who had come down to support us.  Many of them brought food, snacks, and most of all their smiling faces which were a tremendous lift and support to Estra, Jessica and me.  I could tell this was having an impact especially on Estra.   Why would all these people come down to sit in a hospital waiting room.  They were a testimony to my mother-in-law Estra who was not a believer in Jesus yet…They came we found out later just to see Estra.  Not because she was of the Jewish faith.   It was from the time they first met Cheryl, Jessica, and I, they grew closer and closer to our family.  In that process as well, they had fallen in love with her mom.  I did not know that they had been phoning, texting, emailing, and writing, communicating to her love, care, and support and most of all…Jesus.  When they arrived, they hugged her, loved on her and it was very inspiring.  Those wonderful people dropped whatever they were involved in and drove down to the UW Medical Center to be with us.  It was very inspiring to me personally.  It was about I think around 8:00, Cheryl we thought, had been in surgery for a few maybe 3 to 4 hours.  It was then that several of us started asking the closest nurse’s station if there was any word on her progress.  No word.  Two hours turned to three hours.  Three hours turned to four hours.  We knew we were in for a long night.  I was not visiting with all those folks, laser focused on the goal         I must have looked angry or mad but inside I was just focused.  I remember around midnight the surgeon came out and wanted to talk to the family in the “family room”.  That was very close to the waiting area where everyone was assembled.  We hurried into that small room, waiting to hear what the doctor had to say.  He walked into the room and sat down, looked down putting his two hands together and then looked up and exhaled.

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