The Kindness of Strangers

Left: Harley in the lower lobby talking with Jaine and Jessica visiting from New York.

Center: Jessica, Me, my new fish "Hope, and Jaine in my hospital room Wednesday night, along with Merrie, Harley, my mom, and sister not pictured. hehe it was a full room that night AND my friend Vaughn also visited earlier)

So this is the story.....Wednesday I mentioned I was out and about roaming the 2 floors below where you can go outside. At first I was with Harley and my sister. At some point Harley disappeared and I cannot remember exactly when. After I tired of being outside and figured I better head back to the room so the staff did not think I went AWOL, my sister and I headed back to the room, But after spending 2 days IN a hospital room, I had little desire to get back in bed or my chair and hang out there. This hospital is amazing and I was longing to hang out in my PJS sitting in the comfy lounge chairs looking out toward the view of the Willamette River valley below with Mt. Hood in the backdrop. What a rare and wonderful opportunity!

So I excitedly grabbed my Planet Ocean book and another book. While there my dad showed up and we were all sitting there reading. Oddly I was not engaged in the ocean book and gave it to my dad to puruse through. Then Harley appeared with my surprise...Merrie! She had a bag of surprises for me so we went back up to the room. My dad was looking at the ocean book so I left him down there with Harley who was on his cellphone.

At some point my dad got up and left leaving the ocean book on the coffee table there for any other patient or visitor to pick up. Maybe he did not realize it was mine? So while Harley was talking he overheard some girls commenting about the ocean pictures which caught his attention. In the midst of his phone conversation he started to think to himself "Hey that sounds like my wife's book!" He turned to look and of course it was my beloved ocean book (I have had a facination with marine biology since I was a little girl and as expected, became a scuba diver and studied it to follow my passion. At home Planet Ocean and Coral Reef DVDS are part of my personal collection.)

Being his extroverted self, Harley struck up a conversation with the young ladies and told them all about me and why we were there. Very moved by my story and interests, they felt compelled to surprise me with a pet fish that they brought to my room later that evening! How incredibly sweet! I am still floored that complete strangers visiting from the other side of the country were so thoughtful and went out of their way to bring me cheer and something very meaningful.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! is all I can say. I am extremely touched and will remember your kindness and hope I can have a heart like yours and one day pass it on.

"Hope" is doing very well and has been on the window sill next to the breakfast table where I see him and say hello when I feed him every morning. :)