Tonight's picture was taken on October 10, 2008. Since Mattie was on a transporting gurney/bed, I know that meant he was headed to a procedure and we were waiting for Debbi (his sedation nurse angel) to show up to take us. In the mean time, Mattie was with me and Linda (his child life specialist). I know Linda was with us for two reasons, first was Mattie had a new activity book that he was working on and the second was Linda came with us on EVERY procedure. After the first couple of scans that we did without her, which did not go well, Linda then accompanied us for every subsequent one. Which not only helped Mattie, but I found it of great support to me. It took two of us at times to help Mattie cope and on top of that we had radiology techs that usually needed to be put in their place! When I look at the date this photo was taken, it is hard to believe that a year later on this same date we held Mattie's memorial service.
Quote of the day: Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. ~ Mark Twain
I spent the day, or six hours of it, at my car dealership. I happen to be attached to my car, since I got this car a month before I gave birth to Mattie. I selected this particular car because of its safety features back in 2002. But as one can imagine a 13 year old car, doesn't hold up as well as a typical 13 year old person.
My service representative that I always have worked with over the years, left the company. So when I initially called to book a service visit they assigned me to work with someone who I would deem as obnoxious. He was so awful that we both landed up becoming hostile with each other on phone. As a result he wouldn't book a time for me to get the car serviced. He infuriated me to no end, that I called the dealership back and spoke to his boss and reported his rude and insulting behavior. I also mentioned that he needed to train his service representatives to deal more effectively with woman. I have to say after what I experienced today (in which my service person even printed out photos to explain what was wrong with the car), my message was translated down to his employees.
When I got to the service counter today, all the representatives were wearing pink. In honor of breast cancer awareness month. I made a mental note of that. What you as a reader may not be aware of is that the childhood cancer community has real issues with pink. For some advocates it sends them right over the edge, because breast cancer gets a lot of attention and public awareness, and childhood cancer has to really work at it to get anything to turn GOLD. I have mixed feelings about this debate, because I know several people with a breast cancer diagnosis and I believe all people with cancer need access to cutting edge research and support. Needless to say, I got the contact information for the general manager, because you know I will ask him to consider having his employees wear GOLD in September!
My car had some major issues today, which is why I was there for six hours. But over the course of the day, I had many interactions with Mike, my service representative. I learned that my car has all the same parts inside of it as an Audi, and in all reality though the label is different, I have for all intensive purposes a luxury car. He made me laugh! But we quickly bonded when I started talking to him about his pink shirt! The pink shirt lead us to a discussion on illness, and he revealed to me that his son was just born with a rare genetic disease. He went into how this has/will impact his son's life and how he and his wife have been almost in crisis mode since his son was born. I listened and chatted with him literally for 30 minutes. I then told him that I understood his fears, his runs to the hospital, and the paranoia he feels regarding every symptom his son has because my son had cancer and died. We chatted about this too and then he asked me..... are you the candy lady? The lady who collects post-Halloween candy and gives it to hospitals? Yep that is me, the candy lady! Apparently this fact about me was known throughout the service representatives and I credit my former service representative for spreading the message. I loved Sharon (my former service representative). Her dad was struggling with cancer, and we talked about that often too.
So what I continually know all too well is if you scratch the surface with people, you find out all sorts of information. Sure Mike may have been helping me with my car, but this was clearly a dad who needed to talk and to be heard. Seeing what Peter goes through, I know it is important that men have the opportunity to be heard and to express their fears, sadness, and worries when it comes to dealing with a sick child.
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