My, Aren't You Gorgeous

Eyeball to eyeball, my mother faced the doctor that had just moments before, removed the last of her stitches. He spoke about skin care, and the importance of noticing when a spot becomes a permanent body resident, and how vital it is, to look for suspicious changes that may be sinister in nature. Sure, basal cells are the kind one would want if they had to choose a form of cancer, but even basal cells have a propensity to be problematic! Suddenly, without warning, I see my mother reach both hands forward toward the young doctor's face: My, aren't your gorgeous, were the words she uttered, as she grinned in his immediate, up-close-and-personal direction. 

I have to smile in the remembering. While the charming and very handsome man did his professional best to warn my mother of the potential dangers ahead, since she had already had surgery to remove naughty cells that did not belong on healthy skin, all my mother could do was notice how gorgeous he was. Never shy, always willing to compliment others, my mother went in for her own variety of truth telling, without a care in the world about what he was saying. 

Ahh, the hospital, with all of the fabulous staff. We had a good time, each visit my mother had to be seen, cut, sewn back together again, and have stitches removed.. Is this strange to you, dear one, to read? Mom had some nasty basal cell carcinoma they told us, that had to be sliced out of her back. Cheerily, mom took the news and did what any wise woman would do: she put on a robe, lied on her side on a table, and patiently got needled unto she couldn't feel, got a swatch of flesh removed, and continued to lie there while the surgeon of plastics, sewed closed the wound. How he did this is a wonder of ingenuity to me, and I am grateful for his skills, let me tell you! The fact that we had to go back and do some of it again, to get the wayward rascals that escaped the first time, was a bit of a set back, but clearly, it was not insurmountable: mom does what she must minus complaining, and she heals faster than you and I can blink. The second round, while mom lied on the table, was kind of funny. The doctor warned, You will feel a sting (or something to that effect) when the freezing needle goes in. As he proceeded, mom started to say Ouch repeatedly. It delights me each time I recall the expression on the faces of the surgeon, the resident surgeon learning from him, and his attending nurse. They were pained to think she was feeling pain ... I quickly eased their minds and said, She is joking. Suddenly, the tension in the room evaporated, and all returned to their cheery dispositions.

There was another bit of hilarity though ... my little sister wanted to see the swatch of naughty flesh that had been cut out of moms back, and when she saw it in a picture I sent her, she asked, They giving you fries with that piece of fish? My son, when I suggested he take a picture of the thing that used to ride uninvited on my mom's back, cheekily replied, What, and use it as a screen saver? This brought a chuckle up and out of the surgeon as he did his handiwork. 

I know, dear reader, what cancer is and how destructive it can be. I do not make light of illness, suffering, pain, or the discomfort that accompanies the malfunctioning of the body. I have an opinion about doctors and hospitals that does not match the thoughts of the majority, of the masses. When sick, so say some, a person can find ways to heal themselves and when that does not work, they can go to a learned professional for some advice ... and suggestions ... and the ill person gets to choose what they will do from there. 

I got an oil change recently, and the gentlemen that serviced my car offered my son and I bottled water on that hot day. The service man that drove my car in and out of the oil change bay, left my car door opened for me, and waited until I was safely in, before closing the door for me. The staff, that served my mom were gracious, kind, thoughtful, and willing to allow my son and I to stay with mom while she had her surgeries ... these people, the oil changers, and the cancer removing-then-sew-her-back-up team, are one and the same to me. There was excellence on both fronts; commendable, personable, delightful professionalism, with a flare for tender and sweet excellence in patient or customer care.

Medicine men and mechanics are equally, wonderfully, uniquely made, and so are you and I, dear reader. We each have an offering, and how we interact with, and love one another is ultimately, all that matters. 

The young handsome stitch removing doctor I mentioned earlier, grinned back at mom with his face in the palm of her hands. while continuing to speak his precautionary messages. He spoke things she already knew, which reminds me to always remember, we must never underestimate what others know, or what they are capable of: he was being dutiful, and so was mom. It was his due, to have her cup his face in her elder hands and tell him, My, aren't you gorgeous ... She was not dismissive, she was attentive, just like he was with her. They both smiled, and as we left, I hoped to never see his handsome face again, because hospitals and doctors are what I most, want to avoid. 

We leave an impression, don't we dear one? We can leave a sour taste in another's mouth, stamp an image in their memory that is hard to revisit, or we can be like honey on the tongue and lips, and a savoury scene when eyes are closed and last experiences are revisited. Jesus is the sweetest word on my lips. Jesus is the kindest image for my mind, and the softest place in my heart. Jesus can be seen and felt in the hands of careful cancer removal surgeons, and mechanics too, that hold car doors open for the weaker sex, otherwise known as females. 

Jesus is the Man/God that we must modelled ourselves after ... wouldn't you, agree, dear one?

John 13:34

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

NOTE: The giraffe looking in on the scene, was in the room with us, when mom had her memorable exchange with Mr. Gorgeous.