Sketching in the Details

Dad and Jane help fill in some blanks:

You came off the ramp on a gurney, not a wheelchair, and you were white and the sheets were white and so was the pillow. In fact, your hair was the most colorful thing about you, which isn't saying much. I remember very vividly, because we had been waiting for you to deplane for 14 or 15 years or so -- well, maybe only 10. And we didn't know what to expect. You did want to walk, but the airline position was that, having flown you in a bed, you weren't walking off. Probably related to liability suits or maybe to special fares for the critically ill.

Laura was certainly there, and I think she was wearing her black leather jacket, because she wore it everywhere until she got hold of your distressed leather flight jacket. Paul was there, but as far as I recall Darlene was not and no friends etc -- just family.

You were wheeled out by some sort of airline attendants, and Jerri walked behind looking quite as exhausted as you suggest. You, however, were grinning from ear to ear (obviously no surgical mask!) and incredibly perky. We were ready for the limp hand, the struggle to turn the head on the pillow. You sat up as far as you could and grinned and said, "Hi, guys!" You were immediately loaded into an ambulance (actually waiting at the terminal), with your mother, and led a parade of cars up to University Hospital (at some distance, you had a head start). I remember joking about ambulance chasing, and how much you were probably enjoying it.

At the hospital we all gathered in your room. Aside from your funny color, you really were quite the jovial host. I think doctors had come to get samples and things before we got up there, because I remember that Paul took Jerri home to get some rest, and we stayed with Laura and visited with you. You wanted pizza, so we went to the Northlake Tavern to get one and brought it back. You actually ate some, although you were starting to run down by then. Not sure if it was that day, or the next, that we discovered where all your blood had gone, and that you were marked like a black bottom pie, white on the top and dark color like grape jam on the bottom. Anyway, we also subsequently learned that you were so peppy because you'd had a nice vampire cocktail on the plane immediately before arriving so you were running on someone else's juice.

The other thing I remember, very clearly, is that nice looking doctor who I think was part Native American and was the resident? On duty. He spoke to us only in whispers and we thought that was so strange. Of course, we later figured out he was being comforting to what he saw as the soon-to-be-bereaved.

Was it the first day that we met Cindy? I don't think it was the first but I'm not sure.

Was it the first day or the second that a nurse came in, ruffled your hair and said, "Oh no, all that beautiful blonde hair." She explained that it would almost certainly come back brown. Laura gloated in best sisterly fashion.

First of all, I do think Darlene was there also, I seem to recall her. I know she was living in Seattle then because she moved up there at the start of your senior year at Lindbergh. I don't remember Scott or Blake being there or anyone else. They may not have known. I think it was just Laura, Paul, your Dad and Jane and Darlene.

Yes, the custom officials came on board and took care of everything on the plane.

Boy, I think the ambulance was on the tarmac and we took an elevator or something to get down to the ambulance??? Or a ramp??? You are right, it was important for me to push you in the wheelchair.

Hugs and Kisses??? Not sure, probably. I don't remember getting into the ambulance but I rode in back with you on a bed and one attendant. Not the doc and nurse from England their job was done when they handed you over to the ambulance crew at the airport. In fact, the medic was concerned about me.

I remember going up I-5 and Paul, and maybe Laura and Darlene with him in his car and your Dad and Jane in their car and they all somehow caught up to us and were following us up the freeway. I remember looking out the back of the ambulance as we drove.

I don't remember arriving at the hospital must have been the emergency entrance. The next thing I remember is arriving at your room, the hospital had everything set up. Cindy was there and some doctors including I think Dr. Collins. We all talked informational type of stuff for your impending hospital stay what it actually was I don't have a clue and I don't know how long I stayed. Paul took me home (must have had Darlene and Laura with us too) I went to bed and slept for 10, 12 hours if not more before waking up to go back up to the hospital. I became intimately familiar with I-5 that year.

One other thing I remember when Paul and I came back up to the hospital that next day walking in from the parking garage we commented on the tulips in bloom by the entrance to the hospital and I said to Paul I wonder how many different flowers we will see in this spot before Robert is well. I remember this because every time I walked past those flower beds I thought about the tulips we saw that very first time. Went through almost all the seasons from spring thru fall with the changing flowers.