Not Ready For Sainthood

In today's Spokesman-Review, a comprehensive review of the events surrounding the attack on Yvonne Wallis, her son Mike, grandson Jed and Mike's wife, Patty. The story, by Allison Boggs hit the front page above the fold for those of you that understand journalistic language.

In that discourse, I was praised for jumping in and attempting to do what I could to help. Initially, it was covered dishes and moral support. Eventually it became known that Yvonne had an infection surrounding the plate that had been inserted into her scull following emergency surgery.

After consulting with Yvonne, and considering her fears and lack of comprehensive skills following her head injury, I determined that Angel Flight wasn't an option for several reasons. First of those was flying her over to Boeing Field, turning her over to a cab driver and dumping her off at Harborview Medical Center wasn't going to work. First, she was afraid of heights and flying. Secondly, she was obviously not capable of dealing with the various bureaucracies that proved to be daunting even to me.

After considering these options and rejecting them, it was clear that she had to be transported by car with a companion along to smooth out the bumps. Rolling that one around in my head, It came clearly to me that I was the obvious choice. First, I'm retired and had the time. Secondly, I had family and friends on the coast that I could stay with while she was hospitalized.

That is what we did. She had two days of pre-op interviews in which I was an observer. We stayed in a non-profit motel ran by the Hutchinson Cancer Center for three nights, followed by the unbelievable course of events that followed at Harborview. I will cover those in another post.

Eventually, she was released and we beat feet back to Idaho. For Two weeks, she had to stay at Life Care Center, which proved to be everything they claimed. The Cadillac of Nursing homes.

She was finally released in an unconventional way, which again I won't go into here.

Now to the title of this post. Most of my life I have been a self centered egotist that looked out for myself sometimes at the expense of others. I am sure that reflected in the multiple marriage failures I Went through. As one ages, if you are lucky, one learned from mistakes made. Sometimes through wisdom, sometimes through God given opportunities that tend to be accidental.

The incident with Yvonne was the later. Suddenly I could do something useful in helping others. It worked for both of us. I, for the first time in a very long time felt good about myself. Truthfully, I think I gained much more by helping than Yvonne received of my assistance. I have many warts. I'm thankful that before I go, I will have done at least one good thing for someone other than myself. I just wish it hadn't taken 70 years to figure it out.