HOPE

     Last night I had a chance to dance.  The first time since I broke my hip.  I can tell my hip still needs to heal more and the surgeon said it would be a year before I am 100%.  While in the hospital back in November, I had some interesting encounters. I could hear one nurse in the hall talking when I first got there and every time she spoke she had a whistle to her voice.  I thought, "How hard that must be and she must have been made fun of sometimes."  After a few days, she was my nurse and she was fantastic.  I think nurses are angels sent from heaven and we don't always get it until we're in the hospital.  Or at least I didn't before I broke my back.  After a few days taking care of me, she talked a little about herself.  She talked about her son dying not too long ago, and I can't remember how but he was an adult.  She didn't cry while telling me the story.  He had the same name as mine.  Then she said that she got cancer around her jaw and so much of her mouth was cut that she had to learn to talk again.  She talked about the physical therapy that she had to endure.  She spoke so honestly about it all, that I couldn't even respond.  She also had such confidence in my recovery.  I was very frightened at that point, and she offered so much hope for me.  I have thought many times that hope isn't real.  It's wanting something to happen in the future, and you're never present.  But this hope, that she offered, gave me a little more peace, knowing I'd be completely healed.  And I will be... So last night I danced for the first time.  Oh, and as beautiful as this nurse was, as generous and open and wonderful as our encounter was, right as she was leaving my room she said, "Oh, and try not to be such a clutz."  Ya gotta laugh...