Last Clinic Chemo, Tuesday October 17th, 2012

This is a special little girl I have been following she just finished her chemo...gosh I love the blogosphere that miles away I can know such an amazing family and little girl ...Van Gheem Family: Last Clinic Chemo, Tuesday October 17th, 2012: Please forgive the lateness of this post. I have been writing it for days, but this one was tough. I kept re-reading what I was writing...

Life as she sees it

So last week I had an amzing opportunity to cross paths with a woman I will never forget especially if I think of the cartoon Beauty and the Beast.I had not planned to pick up such a short shift - four hours was what it was - a four hours that will forever remain etched in my memory.All the scheduler told me is that she is "legally blind".I was like ok cool no sweat...So I Buzz the door and am met by a boisterous and yet sweet Portugese voice Who is it???Its Penny from XYZ company.....oh come in...So I go in and meet this short lady lets call her Mrs E standing with dark sunglasses at four pm on a beautiful fall day and a million dollar smile on her face.Oh come in Ms P!! she tells me.She welcomes me and begins to give me a tour of her bachelorette pad.I notice how everything in the apartment is spick and span.I notice the pictures on the wall - I always notice the pictures on the walls in all the patients rooms as I believe they tell a story of their lives- their children , their sisters,their grandchildren , husbands they lost in the army etc etc...I notice Ms E on the wall and I ask her why she is carrying a piano of which she smiles (there is the million dollar smile again) Ms P you are so silly thats an accordion my friend!!!I play the accordion harmonica and the piano.I will play you my favorite songs she says.I squeal with glee and tell her I cant wait.As I sit down to read her chart I see Ms E was born with congenital bilateral anopthalmia - born with no eyeballs.My eyes slowly widen - no pun as I look at Ms E - you mean to tell me behind those dark sunglasses there is like vacuum??air? like nothing.She notices my silence and asks what I was doing - I mutter just going through the chart.After a while she is ready to play me her favorite classic on her harmonica and then she begins for all the cartoon lovers...tale as old as time...song as old as rhyme..Beauty and the Beast.She goes on and on and I sit in silence like those kids in african stories who used to gather around the fire as the grandmother told stories.It was the most beautiful music I had heard.She finished and I was absolutely blown away.We later had dinner and talked about everything and anything under the sun -I sung for her an South African song - Sandela which she mouthed along and we laughed at her poor pronunciation ...She told me she is such a beast in the morning and is not a morning person she loves her beauty sleep - get it Beauty and the Beast - an area where we clicked anyone who knows me knows how I am soo not a mornign person.... she asked me about my family - what I went to college to study, I told her I took a Spanish class - so between us finding a happy medium of her teaching me Portugese which she said some words were the same as Spanish we darn well communicated.The word that stuck in my head she told me was contente which in Portugese means happy.I thought of the English word content as I looked at Ms E and thought she is the epitome of the word content. She is content in her skin; eyeballs or not she has learnt to live and make music in the darkness, and most important smile through the darkness.I thought of my bunkermate in form one who was also blind.Her smile was like sunshine on a cloudy day.I can only think of how tough it was  - if you know Kenyan high schools you know how you need a whole bunch of patience on those second form col mornings when there was no water to shower ;) ...But it is such moments spending time with with Mrs E that make life worth living.She deposited in my life and I hopefully deposited in hers.And I hope that we may all embrace such moments and open our hearts to the experience of meeting people who may be "different" from us.My path may never cross again with Mrs E but it was a subtle reminder for me to stop and smell the roses, apreciate the beautiful sunset.As I left she told me to turn off all the lights and I left her folding clothes in the dark as she sung.It was a bit awkward at first but it reminded me that life is painted in different colours for different people - it all depends how you see it.


Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”