| Jodie saw the logical conclusion to her journey ending in having the SRS. She had made several attempts to set up surgery dates in Thailand as I was closing in on getting mine in Montr�al. She had cancelled one date she had booked in January 2003, that was the month I first learned of my surgery date. I remember having dinner with her for the first time after we had been on the outs for a short time. She was so excited when I told about getting my surgery scheduled for the end of March, which was only in a few months. I know she won�t admit to it, but there was no way she was going to let me have the surgery first. So, it wasn�t long before she was fervently working on a restoring a time in Thailand when she could have the SRS. Getting my surgery date put Jodie on the road to getting hers. It wasn�t long before she had a date just two weeks before mine. It was an exciting time for both of us, and mainly for two different reasons: she just wanted to get the whole thing over with � I was savoring every last thing that was going into finally realizing my dream. She was having an extraordinarily difficult time in breaking up with her wife. Those days were very tumultuous for the both of us. She kept me on edge with her wild and crazy notions concerning her life. I just tried to comfort her while the both of us zeroed in our dates with destiny. It was a wild time as Jodie prepared to leave for Thailand. She was leaving for New York City to fly out on a Sunday. She was supposed to call me Saturday morning and arrange a time to meet me on her way to the city. I hadn�t heard from her that morning and I was beginning to get worried. I started calling and e-mailing her in order to initiate some contact. She finally called me and she sounded horrible. She admitted to getting into the sleeping pills the doctor had given her for the long trip to Thailand the night before. There I was once again being her cheerleader as she coped with her pain. She was still planning on driving to the city that afternoon. I begged her to stop in to see me after she was en route. I needed to give her some essentials for her trip, but I mainly wanted to assess her sanity. I felt confident she would stop even though she was despondent. She was a wreck when she arrived. The pain of losing her wife and facing the prospect of continuing to be on her own was destroying any shred of hope she had. I couldn�t imagine how she was ever going to fly to Thailand and then have the surgery the day after she got there. Her attitude definitely freaked me out as we started to talk about her hardship, although it didn�t stop me from trying to reach her and hopefully cheer her up. There�s no more helpless feeling than trying to encourage someone who has given up hope. We talked for well over an hour before she eventually seemed to get her wits back. I so wanted to be there for her surgery. With my surgery coming up in two weeks, the prospect of going to Thailand was clearly out of the question. I had blown up a picture of the two us and had it framed so she could have a friendly face to look at while she was gone. The tears flowed freely as we had our last hug before she got back on the highway. I hugged her even tighter as she began to back off. As we continued to embrace I asked her to try hard to remember the feeling of this emotional, heartfelt hug. Once she got to Thailand, I felt if she could remember the warmth of that hug while she looked at our picture, then surely she would feel me there with her. We hugged tightly and wept while we both felt the wonder of our friendship manifesting in a time of need. I was extremely concerned as she got in her car and sped away, her imminent journey now seemed so uncertain. <<BACK<< >>NEXT>> |