The Widow Maker

Here is one of my good friends on December 18th making an ornament. I just got back from visiting her in the hospital. She will be 42 next month. Fortunately she will see that birthday. She had a heart attack last night. The doctor said it was termed "the widow maker". Well, from research on the Internet, I guess that comes to mean different things to different doctors.

Same say it is the left main artery, others the right. In my friends case it was the right. Either way, it was a close call. She just happens to work at a hospital, and was working when it happened. She had bounded up a flight of stairs, felt faint and sat down. The next thing she knew she was on the floor. They said had it happened anywhere else... well, I just don't like to think about that.

So many people poured into her room this evening, I only stayed for a little while. The five of us came, visited and quietly (if you can believe that) left the hospital. We had dinner and talked about anything but our missing sixth friend laying on her back in a hospital bed. She has been told not to move her head. She was finding that very difficult. Her color was good, as were her spirits. I heard her special laugh and it brought tears to my eyes. How close had we come to never hearing that laugh again?

I got to meet her fiance. Under harsh conditions, though. Not in a celebratory way, but in the harsh lighting of a hospital waiting room. Can they make those places any uglier? Who chooses the shades of paint, anyway? Oyster gray and frosty green. Where is the warmth?

Her parents looked very fatigued. They had slept very little. Her twin brother came to visit as did her sister. She must have been exhausted. Rest my dear friend, rest. You have a long road ahead of you. We love you and want you back healthy and strong.