When I was an intern I worked at a hospital in the Philadelphia suburbs. I knew I was going to be doing my ophthalmology training in Oklahoma City so that February I packed up my stuff and went to OKC for a month to get an early start on my training and also to house hunt. For part of that time my mom came to help me house hunt and Eric tagged along. I can’t remember how Eric was able to come. He may have been in between a job and law school at that point.
One afternoon I was supposed to meet the realtor, my mom and Eric after I finished work. I had been observing surgery at the VA hospital. I left work and got in my car, got out of the car where we were supposed to meet and remembered I had tied my watch, wedding ring and engagement ring to my scrubs. I went to take them off the scrubs and put them back on, but they weren’t there. I panicked. Eric came back to the medical center with me and together we searched through the OR trash, the OR laundry and anywhere else we could think my jewelry might possibly be. In addition to the rings obviously being special to me, the watch was a medical school graduation gift from Eric and my parents.
I was a wreck. We walked all over that campus with tears running down my face. I was afraid to tell my husband. Eric kept his arm around me and just kept saying “It’s not a person, it’s just things.” He was so right.
Eventually we ended up at the campus police where someone had turned in my wedding ring and my watch. The cynical part of me thinks they kept my engagement ring as payment for being a Good Samaritan. Maybe they just didn’t find it though. I was pretty happy to get 2/3 of my loss back.
Eric’s words have stuck with me. My husband saw it the same way. I’m so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.
Now my loss is a person. An amazing person. A constant in my life who I never thought I’d be without. No wonder I’m having such a hard time with this.
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