As we all know, memories of those we love are the most precious cargo we carry through life. From 2010-1015, I was blessed beyond anything I deserved to be the hospital teacher at a Children’s Hospital in the Central Valley of California. There, each day, I sat bedside with very sick children, teaching them cursive, spelling, and math in preparation for their return to school.
Hope. Determination. Fortitude. Love. Laughter. Faith. Acceptance.
The list of admirable qualities in my young students and friends remains endless. These children were warriors against the very diseases that robbed them of their lives.
In 5 years, I graduated 35 children to heaven. There, they play. Eternal recess until they hear the bell. When Mrs. Hurt arrives, it’ll be time for school again. What a perfectly delightful reunion it will be.
Alyssa was six when she died. It was over a holiday. I didn’t get to share one last goodbye. One last giggle. On her last game of hide and seek, she chose a place in which I couldn’t go to find her. Not just yet, anyway.
On the day about which this poem was written, another student had taken a turn for the worst. She lay in ICU, very, very ill. Lexie, 12, and Alyssa were besties. It was only natural for Alyssa’s mom, (destroyed from the loss of her only daughter), to visit Lexie’s family, (about to lose theirs).
I got the call on a Sunday.
Lexie was in ICU.
I wouldn’t miss another chance to say Goodbye. And so, I sped 45 miles on a Sunday afternoon to visit a student and a friend.
Lexie did return to 8th grade, which was her one desire in life. She did get to visit DisneyWorld in Florida. She did get to giggle many more days with her silly friends. Lexie didn’t get to make 14, passing away on an early spring day before the almond blossoms turned the world pink.
Grief. It comes in all ways to all people. One thing is for sure. The sweetest memories are worth carrying a lifetime.
Whatever you do today, give support and help to a mom you know. Mom’s are raising human beings the best way they know how. Smiles and hugs can help any mom make it through another day. And, Please send sweet prayer to my Alyssa and Lexie. They LOOOOOVVVVVEEEEDDDDD surprises.
More tomorrow.
JUST BY CHANCE — by Joy Hurt
We could’ve taken different elevators.
I was going down.
You were going up.
I could’ve been late.
You could’ve broken a heel.
I could’ve decided not to come to ICU that weekend afternoon.
You could’ve taken a wrong turn to the bar.
A million little things might’ve prevented our meeting.
But
In a service elevator on that winter’s day,
Tunneled in a very large Children’s Hospital
We were together again.
Your precious Allyssa, now Heaven’s angel-girl, was there with us, too,
I’m sure I heard her giggle in that way she always did.
A toothless little sound exploding out of sheer happiness
When her world was going juuuussssssttttt right.
Alyssa was a child for which every day was JUUUUSSSSSSSTTTT right,
Even with cancer dragging her away from us.
My heart remembers her every day.
She was everything good and happy.
An angel now, wearing the finest shade of pink, pink, pink wings.
Elevating two floors closer to heaven, I listened as you spoke to me,
Lifting me from the depths of worry for another of cancer’s children.
Lexie-Girl.
Trapped just this side of heaven in a very real hell here on earth.
There you were in beauty and strength.
My friend, an inspiration.
Alyssa’s mom.
Helping others while healing yourself.
Enchantedly confused, I came out of the elevator to follow you,
Before I “snapped to” and remembered,
I could no longer follow you down our hall to her.
You went on to coffee.
I went on to help others struggling with their hospital journeys.
Later, we met again while visiting a common friend.
Happy angel giggles swirled in the wind just outside the window.
We both smiled, knowing Alyssa was never good
At hide and seek.
For six years, she commanded center stage in life.
With throat swelling and eyes leaking,
I had to walk away.
Thoughts turning again to Sweet Miss 6,
My 1st grade hospital student,
Alyssa.
So lucky was I to have met someone like you, A.
I learned so much in our time together.
I will never forget you.
To infinity and beyond, Sweetie Pie.
I could’ve made a wrong turn
And
missed
YOU
all
together.
XOXOXO
More tomorrow.