I just found out that an old friend is in the hospital. He’s barely lucid and probably going through total renal failure right now. Three times in the past he’s been declared clinically dead. I’d called and left emails over the last few weeks and not heard a thing. Today I called and someone else’s voice was on his message machine.
Cassandra was good enough to let me know what room he’s in and a little about his condition.
The guy’s name is J.B. and we used to play music together a lot. He loves to cook and we frequently broke bread. He’s into bonsai and an accomplished computer artist.
Please think good thoughts for him. Include him in any hopes you might have if you would be so kind. I’m so bummed right now I can’t go into it. I’ll be down at the hospital later today. Cassandra has been doing her best to make sure he has a visitor every single day and I’m really indebted to her.
Let’s go SD’ers! I want full steam ahead on the best you can do. There ain’t nothing that I know of like these boards for well wishing, so please know that I’m counting on you all. I can’t tell you what it means right now that I have this place to ask for such a favor, but ask I shall.
I have a friend going through a similar, though not quite as extreme, ordeal, at the moment. But, I have plenty of good thoughts to spare for your friend, as well.
All the good vibes I can muster are headed to both friends. It so hard to know there’s nothing you can do even tho you’d do anything to help your friends.
I visited J.B. at the hospital today. On my way there, I detoured to buy some flowers for his room, since he’s big on plants. Heading for the store, I spotted a burger shack where he helped the owners get a handle on the restaurant business. J.B. has been involved with food service forever and showed them the ropes for portion control and special recipes.
I knew these people would want to know about J.B.'s condition. I tried to explain through my tears why I was there and the owner said she already knew. J.B.'s Mafia is very efficient at manning the old grapevine. The owner wrote down a couple of notes for me to bring him.
Time for a little good news. There were THREE people in his room when I got to the hospital! I made four and it was a real relief to see he was in such good company. He was completely lucid and really happy to see all of us. His friend Cassandra is doing her best to make sure someone visits him every day. I put his flowers in a vase and held his hand for a while. He showed me his bland hospital food and begged me to get him a small hot fudge milkshake from the burger shack.
I drove back and took up the owner on her offer to fix him something. I brought it back to him and let him eat precisely four spoonfuls before draining the rest down the sink. No way was I going to put him into insulin shock from all that sugar. We talked for a while and I told him about all the good things happening to me lately. I promised him I’d show up next week. I also know another old friend of his will be dropping by tomorrow. I offered the guy a ride in from Santa Cruz since I know he doesn’t drive. Fortunately, he already had a driver so I didn’t have to worry about it.
So there’s your update. Quite obviously, the extremely potent good vibes from this board opened his eyes before I even got there. I mentioned how people were already checking into his get well thread here before I even left the house. That brightened him up a lot.
