Story Description
In a dark moment of a medical emergency that could have made a dim future, I chose to take a leap of faith and commit to something sure to brighten it.
January 2021 brought us back to a stretch of working from home as COVID continued surging. Work meeting on Zoom interrupted by a quiet yet somehow urgent and unexpected calling of my name from a floor above. I find my wife, just emerged from the shower, her arm bleeding from a small cut that she can’t explain. And that’s just the beginning of what she can’t articulate…the date…her sister’s name…the word for eyeglasses. The EMT’s come and confirm she needs to get to a hospital, OK I say, I’ll get our things. “Should I follow in the car, or come in the ambulance?” The EMT says “Oh no – it’s COVID – you can’t come to the hospital.” Oh no, it’s COVID – keeping me away from the hospital, my wife alone when she’s confused, possibly very sick. But if not for COVID I would have been back working in the office and who knows what I would have come home to. A doctor’s call says the confusion has worsened and says time is of the essence. They want to do a treatment that must be done immediately…6% chance of failure including death…but I mishear, think she says 60% chance…Do I feel like a gambler today? Once corrected, it feels like a chance to take.
Minutes turn into hours. We’ve been, I’ve been, scouring the pet adoption sites looking for our dog for weeks – I decide to distract myself with this. Too big, too far, no answer on application, just one obstacle after another. Suddenly pet 30262567 looking up at me from my phone. Mini-schnauzer mix with sad eyes. My world could possibly be turning upside down or maybe resuming its regularly scheduled program within a few days. Clicking “apply” was my vote of confidence that everything was going to be OK. Maybe we should have named her Hope.