She was definitely a multi-tasker. My wife and I were sitting at her cubicle awaiting our appointment, and the multiple-lit blinking phone was indicating others were waiting as well.
“Excuse me,” she said as we were seated, whereupon she picked up the phone, punched a button, apologized to the person on the other end of the line for holding on – at least that’s what we think she said – and then rattled off a paragraph or two in Spanish.
She hung up and then thanked us for patiently waiting.
We were there to enroll my wife in the very first phase of what would be a five year journey through cancer treatment.
The receptionist said the Oncology Department had a whole lot of services and resources to offer.
I asked if teaching Spanish was one of them.
She smiled then and said probably not.
Knowing all of two Spanish phrases – my wife and I having taken youth groups to Tijuana twice to work with the children down there which I related to this Oncology intake receptionist – she looked up then over the top of her computer even while typing away entering my wife’s information and said this:
“Whatever it was you went down there for, you may or may not know that what you accomplished far more significant than anything else was that you likely just listened. You listened to their stories, maybe much of which you couldn’t understand, language different from your own. You came. You listened. It mattered.”
Your life was put on hold to give others something to hold on to.
These last five years in which we battled cancer, our lives have been on hold.
Holding on to one another.
Holding on to memories we recalled, laughing at what silliness we had ourselves perpetuated – “Remember the time…” – and returning to the practice of 50 years before where I read to her from our favorite romance novels.
She’s gone now. This will be my first Christmas without her. She left on the first day of spring.
But we had the privilege of our lives being put on hold.
We had the joy of missing out.
Our lives were put on hold to hopefully give others something to hold on to.
