... I know I have since surpassed her .... the life she lived.
For the last few years, I have travelled the career path of my father.
Better paid
Flying all over the place
Representing the interests of CARICOM - 6 Million people.
Now, it seems I have reached a turning point in my life.
The only words I whispered on visiting her grave were
"I am too you not to try this"
And ....
I am enjoying it.
The surgeon thinks his job ends once the patient leaves the hospital.
The person who visits the home, makes it safe, helps the family caregivers learn what changes will be necessary.
Teaches the patient, how to dress. Lymphodema. The swelling of her arm post op.
The tricks to using the 'fake breast', post masectomy.
Rigs the splint so that her hand is in a good position at night.
Makes a comb so that with restricted mobility, she can comb what hair she has left.
.....
That job....
Is an occupational therapist.
And I so wish that the person I am now understudying was there then.
But .... you can't change the past. .... BLUE ROSE, Left breast.
Gestalt.... More that the sum of my parts
"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
