Clear blue skies are a sure sign of peak summertime. These are the days when time moves fast, and yet for a moment it stops. In the moment thoughts of peace and tranquility rise.
The dialysis group is tight-knit for a common reason. Of necessity it becomes a second family with all the family elements and more. Laughter is shared and stories told of great adventures and minor events. Because there are so many of us, we are divided into shifts and the shifts become members of the family as travails and ideas are tossed around.
The nurses, technicians, and hangers-on that make up the care team struggle with the ordinary parts of life. Pictures of babies, grandchildren, children, boyfriends and girlfriends make a montage of moments that give the family shape and define its scape. Hanging over their heads, though, is the understanding that there is a time for everything. Even as life is celebrated and treasured, death sits in a small corner and every now and then steps into the conversation and leaves with one of our members.
These nurses and doctors are some of the most courageous you will meet. They know what the ultimate resolution will be and yet continue like Don Quixote, fighting windmills and demons, dreaming the impossible dream.
Candace had been a nurse, welcoming lots of youngsters to new families and keeping the doctors in line. In time she joined our group of patients and added to the mirth and mischief as we suffered the routine of needle punctures, diet changes, and such things that each dialysis patient has to bear. Always by her side, her best friend and companion, and in these past few months, chauffeur. The two were one when it came to treatment and shared in the laughter and joy of friendship.
A Monday came and Candace left.
For a moment these clear blue skies of late summertime came to stand still and silent in loving respect for a kindred spirit. Then a butterfly flapped its jeweled wing and all returned to the riot of living in the moment.
Sadness will yield to joy. Joy finds its way into the group and all share in the wonder of one new face not yet etched with lines of concern. This new joy will in time learn of the vagaries of life, love and labor for the morrow. In time it will share with all the other bundles of joy the wonders of a bright sunny day in The County, staring up at the clear blue skies.
Thank you, Candace, for sharing some of that joy with us all. Welcome to this new bundle of joy who is sure to make us laugh and cry with the exuberance of living here.
Orpheus Allison is a photojournalist living in The County who graduated from UMPI and earned a master of liberal arts degree from the University of North Carolina. He began his journalism career at WAGM television later working in many different areas of the US. After 20 years of television he changed careers and taught in China and Korea.
