7 years ago

This image, from a trip to NYC in 2004

Seven years ago today, my mother was sitting beside me in a tiny pre-op room the size of a closet. It was uncomfortably early.

I was there for a re-staging biopsy. She was there for support.

I lay there worried about the potential scar I was about to get on my neck, and if it was going to affect my ability to serve in a wedding party the following week.

My mom read a book.
I fiddled with a clock radio.
The measured NPR voices took on a new tone.
A plane hit the World Trade Center in New York.
More concern.
Was the Pentagon hit?
Alarm.
The radio trailed off and I was taken to surgery.

I came to hours later and my mom was again, right there. She asked me if I needed anything.

“Water.”

“You can only have ice chips” she said and leaned over with a styrofoam cup, “How are you?”

I remember saying, “I’m fine, but how’s the country?”

Seven years later and sometimes?
Sometimes I feel like I don’t know the answer to that question.

4 responses to “7 years ago”

  1. Renaud Avatar

    Very well-written entry. I ask myself that same question of yours often as well.

  2. Ben Avatar

    Thank you so much for sharing this. Really nice story with a really great perspective. Well done.

  3. Design for Mankind Avatar

    This is quite a moving piece, Chris…

  4. minxlj Avatar

    Wow. Quite a tale…and what timing for you to be taken into surgery just then.
    Hope you’re OK and you recovered after the op. Your country will recover too…here in the UK we’re avidly watching the run-up to the elections. I hope the right choice is made otherwise recovery will be going backwards for a while 🙁