Stories Matching 'Health and Wellness' Tag (114 matches)



An Unsuspecting Restaurant Table

So there we are sitting in our little booth, finishing up a, tasty meal. It dawns on us, it’s time. Who will it be? Who will it be? Hmmm…. them! Who? Them, the couple behind me over my left shoulder. All right, lets do it! Our waiter comes over and asks: Would you like to take the rest with you? Yes, we would. Could we have our check? Ahhh, we’d also like to pay for that table. Uhh…what table? Any table really, but we were thinking of that table…. Fingers point discreetly, and the target is understood. We slip him a SMILE card and ask that it be given to them in lue of the bill. He walks over to the register and exchanges a few words with his manager. The Manager looks up, glances over, and smiles. The waiter returns and asks: He wants to know if this table would ... Read Full Story >>

80.5K Reads

Love Endures All

When one of my colleagues was diagnosed with cancer, he decided to take a leave of absence.  He decided to take leave not only because he was undergoing treatment, but also because his wife was going through treatment for a brain tumor.  Given that they were both in bad shape, he decided to take the leave so that they could enjoy each other's company while they still had the chance. Before he went on his leave, he purposely came to his office after hours to gather his personal belongings - just in case.   At the office, we all felt very bad but didn't know how to keep in touch with him and his family without bothering them.   So here is what I did: I bought cards with envelopes and distributed them to all the people in our group.  Then I sent an email to everyone encouraging my colleagues to write something, anything, for our friend.  I then ... Read Full Story >>

5302 Reads
  • Posted by jennieG
  • Mar 30, 2010
  • 13 Comments
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Beautiful Music To My Ears

My husband and I recently made a visit to see his mother, Gladys, who is in a nursing home with Alzheimer's.  I don't know a whole lot about this terrible disease but I am learning how quickly it can take over the memory.

We traveled many miles to visit Gladys and she was glad to see us but within just a few minutes, she even forgot that we were there!

My husband spotted a piano on the other side of the room and walked over to it and began to play a piece he had written many years ago hoping his mother would somehow recognize it.

I wish I could end this story saying she did but Gladys just contnued to eat her lunch.

The music was so beautiful!  Even I had a hard time believing that it was my own husband playing it.  Other people came out of their offices to watch him and one resident even remarked that she wished he would continue playing for a bit longer.

In the deepest of my hearts, I like to believe that Gladys heard the music.  I felt so proud of my husband.

2752 Reads

$100 Pay-it-forward Award

I recently received a $100 pay-it-forward award from Karma Kitchen, where I volunteer occasionally.  It's a gift-economy restaurant where everyone pays what they want, for the person after them.  On nights when more money is received, it is distributed as pay-it-forward awards from which we have to do something good in our community. So on Labor Day, I invited my two friends -- Hafeez and Mita -- to Berkeley to put $100 to good use. I placed the order at Southside Bongo Burger, but then restaurant owner called me back.  "You want what?  $100 worth of Burgers?" the owner queried me on the phone.  I suppose he wanted to confirm it was a real order and not some sort of fraternity prank. :) "Yes, yes," I explained. "We recently received $100 gift to pay-it-forward.  So three of us wanted to give a personalized, gourmet treat to our homeless brothers and sisters ... Read Full Story >>

4151 Reads
  • Posted by IZZY
  • Dec 10, 2007
  • 8 Comments
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Four Bags Of Ice

I stopped at a convenience store on the way home from my monthly trek to the surgeon for a medical procedure.  I usually stop and get myself some candy and a pop as  a treat for surviving the torture. This time I noticed an elderly woman getting a bag of ice and went to walk around so as not to be in her way.  Right  then, she paused her work and gently asked, "I can move, if you'd like to pass through."  "No, I'm fine.  I'll just go this way.  But can I give you a hand?"  "No, that's alright."  And so, I went on inside the store. As I got my candy, I turned around to see if there was anything else I needed and I saw the ice-lady again.  "How are you doing?" I asked her.  "Okay.  Just have to pay for my ice and get home."  "How many bags ... Read Full Story >>

3657 Reads
  • Posted by froggierintx
  • Dec 28, 2007
  • 14 Comments
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A Prayer Rock Minister

You might've heard the story of a person walking along a beach who kept throwing starfish back into the ocean to save their lives.A passerby commented that the task was useless since the man couldn't save all of the starfish, but the man continued to throw them back anyway because he felt that each one he did save was important. A few years ago I had to have thyroid surgery. Because I am a school teacher, I was terrified that I would never speak again. I shared my fear with my minister, and she gave me a "prayer stone" to take with me into surgery. I had the nurse tape it on my arm during surgery and many people "commented" about the rock taped to my arm. As I awaited my operation, people on the stretchers next to me asked about my "stone" and when ... Read Full Story >>

5217 Reads

Mother’s Last Laugh

Consumed by my loss, I didn’t notice the hardness of the pew where I sat.  I was at the funeral of my dearest friend - my mother.  She finally had lost her long battle with cancer.  The hurt was so intense; I found it hard to breathe at times. Always supportive, Mother clapped loudest at my school plays, held a box of tissues while listening to my first heartbreak, comforted me when my father died, encouraged me in college, and prayed for me my entire life. When Mother’s illness was diagnosed, my sister had a new baby and my brother had recently married his childhood sweetheart, so it fell to me, the twenty-seven-year-old middle child without entanglements, to take care of her.  I counted it as an honor. “What now, Lord?” I asked, sitting in the church.  My life stretched out before me as an empty abyss. My brother sat stoically with his face ... Read Full Story >>

6429 Reads

A Cookie Gram On Mother's Day

My son is my world and I love everything about him. When he was 3, he was diagnosed with a terminal brain-stem tumor.  Doctors gave him a 50% chance of surviving the first year and 10% in the second year.   I am proud to say that it has been a little over two years now since then.  About a month ago, though, we were told that his tumor was active again and that we really dont know what going to happen from day to day.  It's tough on us.  But the saving grace has been the unexpected kindness of so many wonderful strangers who comfort and give words of advice.  No one claims to have a cure for the pain and sorrow you feel when dealing with the loss of a child, but many people offer their warmth that helps us heal. In particular, there is this one nurse who has ... Read Full Story >>

2695 Reads

Art of Holding Babies

"Carol Lee?" On our flight to New Orleans, the "Fasten Your Seat Belts" sign had just come on. Carol Lee was reading her book. She lifted her head, "What do you want to do in life?" I asked. I expected her to say she wanted to travel to Europe. Carol Lee turned to me and said, "I would like to hold babies." "Hold babies?" I was stunned. "You've got grandchildren." "I would like to work in a hospital nursery and just hold the newborns." Newborns? Her desire was one to ponder, which I did with each salty peanut I crunched. I looked out my little round window at New Orleans in the distance. Hold babies? Was she serious? A beignet at Cafe Du Monde, the French Quarter, a walk and a tour of the Garden District - joie de vivre! St. Charles Avenue and the streetcar ride; moonlight dancing aboard a Mississippi riverboat; a final ... Read Full Story >>

4057 Reads
  • Posted by Rod
  • Mar 12, 2008
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Sandpiper To Bring You Joy

She was six years old when I first met her on the beach near where I live. I drive to this beach, a distance of three or four miles, whenever the world begins to close in on me. She was building a sand castle or something and looked up, her eyes as blue as the sea. "Hello," she said.  I answered with a nod, not really in the mood to bother with a small child. I'm building," she said.  "I see that. What is it?" I asked, not really caring. "Oh, I don't know, I just like the feel of sand." That sounds good, I thought, and slipped off my shoes. A sandpiper glided by.  "That's a joy," the child said. "It's a what?" "It's a joy. My mama says sandpipers come to bring us joy." The bird went gliding down the beach. Good-bye joy, I muttered to myself, hello pain, and turned to walk on. ... Read Full Story >>

4642 Reads

11 Years Without a Single Complaint

I met my husband (my 2nd) back in 1997 at a colleague's wedding. We immediately hit it off and saw each other regularly. I told him all about my having IIH, and what it involved as well as the worst case scenario, which is blindness. I was also at the time a single parent to an 8 year old daughter. Although in some ways we were total opposites, we shared the same humour, values and ideas, and within a year we were married. It was the most fantastic day, and I don't know who cried more, myself or my husband. He became a fantastic husband, and father to my daughter (the only one she's ever known), and life was good to us. Two years on, due to my IH I lost my peripheral vision and depth perception. After having an Lp shunt to prevent total blindness, my mobility was severely affected, as the ... Read Full Story >>

5600 Reads

My Inspiration To Give

I went to a Catholic Mission Hospital in Ghana one day, to visit a friend who was a Priest, and medical doctor but was off duty then. On reaching at the hospital gate, there was this woman who seemed to have traveled from the far away village to send her sick girl to the hospital. And the girl was actually dying, so pile, with bulged eyes, and flies were all over her body. Also, the mother of this girl who looked so shabbily and tattered could not do anything but to see her poor girl dying on her own laps, since the nurses on duty would not offer her the necessary help, perhaps due to her poverty. From the hospital gate, the shouts for help from this poor woman drew my attention, so I approached her, took the sick girl from her laps and sent her straight to the consulting room to see ... Read Full Story >>

6945 Reads

Kneeling With a Bouquet of Flowers

My cousin Heidi was stricken around age 16 with a debilitating disease, which took her life about 20 years later. As the disease progressed, she became wheelchair bound and unable to easily communicate (I'm not sure of the disease -- it may have been a combination, including Parkinson's). When she was in her late 20's, she would often have her mother take her out into the front yard when the weather was nice so that she could sit in her wheelchair and watch the cars pass by. One day, my aunt was doing dishes and looked out the window to see a car pulled to the side of the road and a man approaching Heidi. In a panic, she ran outside, wondering who this person was that was approaching her daughter. When she arrived where my cousin was sitting, the man was kneeling before her placing a bouquet of flowers in her lap ... Read Full Story >>

9357 Reads

A Blanket of Sisterhood

I have been doing what I can to look out for someone who lives close inside my heart though the daily lives we experience are quite far apart .  In my home, I wake up to a fresh morning, experiencing the luxury and warmth of the comfort of my own bed laden with a floral quilt that my grandmother once made for me. On the opposite coast of the country, within the confines of the lonely hospital walls, my sister rests often unpeacefully and in pain on a cold and firm plaster white sterilized bed. A cancer inside her is spreading despite a recent mastectomy and three months of intense chemotherapy. Radiation was not a possibility for her and now this condition has seeped into her skull and spine. The comforter which I grip so tightly begins to unravel in my hand and the texture of the fabric begins to soil, as I feel a piece of me lying there with her in the hospital room.  In order to keep myself from crumbling, I began to send blessing blankets, little toy angels, and a book of ... Read Full Story >>

4224 Reads
  • Posted by myfbil
  • Oct 21, 2008
  • 14 Comments
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Folded Napkins For Stevie

I try not to be biased, but I had my doubts about hiring Stevie. His placement counselor assured me that he would be a good, reliable busboy.  But I had never had a mentally handicapped employee and wasn't sure I wanted one.  I wasn't sure how my customers would react to Stevie. He was short, a little dumpy with the smooth facial features and thick-tongued speech of Downs Syndrome.  I wasn't worried about most of my trucker customers because truckers don't generally care who buses tables as long as the meatloaf platter is good and the pies are homemade. The four-wheeler drivers were the ones who concerned me; the mouthy college kids traveling to school; the yuppie snobs who secretly polish their silverware with their napkins for fear of catching some dreaded "truck stop germ" the pairs of white-shirted business men on expense accounts who think every truck stop waitress wants to ... Read Full Story >>

6896 Reads

From a Flood to a Hug with Kindness

The late evening train from Glasgow was battling the worst of the winter weather and the driver was proceeding more on hope than anything. Weeks of rain had meant the line might or might not be flooded - and he wouldn't know until he got there! Well, it was flooded. So he backed up to the nearest station where we sat and waited for about half an hour with no one knowing what was going on. I didn't mind. I wasn't going home to anyone, I had music to listen to and it wouldn't be the first night I had slept on a train. But not everyone would be in that position. Then the lights went out. Still there was no announcement. We sat another half an hour then the driver announced he was taking the train back to Glasgow and anyone who didn't want to come with it should get out now.  ... Read Full Story >>

6579 Reads

How to Make a Friend

My son Wynn has autism. As a result, his social skills are stunted. Neverless, he still longs for friendship and human kinship even though he rarely knows how to properly initiate conversations. When he was 7 or 8, he went through a phase where he would approach strangers with survey-type questions such as: "Excuse me, Sir. Are you married or are you happy?" or "Excuse me, Lady. Have you always been so old?" or, my personal favorite, "Excuse me, Girl. How did you grow up to be a fat woman?" As you can imagine, he didn't make many friends for either one of us, and I spent a lot of time apologizing and feeling embarrassed (though I have to say, his questions were actually quite relevant).  When Wynn was 10, he entered the phase of being totally enamored with men who had facial hair. In his attempt to interact with his subject of interest, he would approach each ... Read Full Story >>

4469 Reads
  • Posted by shannonj
  • Dec 9, 2008
  • 16 Comments
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Uncle Unconditional

I went to visit my parents this past holiday weekend. During the trip, we went to visit my ailing uncle. He was in the hospital due to a heart attack. It was the second heart attack he had in the last four months and this time the doctors said it is really quite serious. The whole family has been wishing him thoughts and blessings of healing since he is the eldest one in our family and particularly because we hope he can live to see his son's upcoming wedding which is scheduled for next month.  As I looked at the situation with all of its uncertainty, I began to think about the life this man lead. He is 60 years old. He has spent his whole life teaching low-income inner city school children whose families are primarily broken, that these youngsters have hope, because hope is priceless. When I went to see him one last time before I left to head back to my home, I brought my uncle a fruit basket with ... Read Full Story >>

6160 Reads

My Son, My Hero

Just after his first birthday my son Cameron was struck down with a rare blood illness.  In the following years he has needed four courses of chemotherapy, multiple blood and platelet transfusions, harsh immunosuppressive treatments, suffered a thrombosis in his leg and over 800 hospital visits, including stays of up to 3 weeks at a time.  All this has led to him now also being an insulin dependent diabetic. Cameron is now 9 years old and raised over £71,000 to support other sick children.  He has equipped his beloved children's hospital with books, televisions, game consoles, arts and crafts items, toys and games.  To the hospital school that taught him how to tell the time, he also gave laptops so the most poorly children could work in their beds, along with a music station, a libary, paints and crayons. A couple of years ago he found out that his hospital was closing and a new one was being built.  ... Read Full Story >>

6838 Reads
  • Posted by babdiane7
  • Jan 17, 2009
  • 26 Comments
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A Touching Gift From My Nurse

I was in hospital for 5 weeks and was diagnosed with Intracrainial Hypertension. I had to have surgery to have a shunt put in to drain excess fluid from my brain. Following the operations I had a problem with balance and walking was a huge problem. I had to have nurses help me with everything. It was a real difficult and emotional time because it was close to Christmas and I really missed my 3 children.  While I was in the hospital, there was one nurse in particular who looked after me, who had a huge impact on my recovery. One day she came with a gift she had bought for me. I was deeply touched. It was a poster with a picture of an empty beach and a verse printed on it. On the back she wrote me a lovely note and signed it.  Now I'm not very religious and I'd not seen this before but I was overcome with emotion when I read it. I ... Read Full Story >>

4635 Reads

Healing the Hurt in Others

Five-and-a-half years ago my father was suddenly rushed to the hospital for open heart surgery.  At the time, we had no idea that he was gravely ill. The surgery did not go well and he remained unconscious. Due to the laws of our state, we were forced to keep him on a ventilator for 72 hours against his living will wishes. At the end of day two, I was sitting in the waiting room and was watching others walk their fathers around who had had similiar surgeries. Typically, I am very happy for others that are recovering, but this evening, I guess I was a little angry because I finally realized I would never be able to hold my father's hand and walk down the hall again. I had to jump up and run down the hall to get away from everyone. This is not in my nature but I just had to be ... Read Full Story >>

6200 Reads
  • Posted by smilingsusan
  • Mar 4, 2009
  • 24 Comments
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Keeping Hope Alive For Our Favorite Professor

A professor I have worked pretty closely with has been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. It has been devastating for his family and heartbreaking for his students. What made him extraordinary was not only that he was a phenomenal rising star. He had only recently collected the highest honours for young researchers at the White House. We truly admired him for his inspiring personality - as someone put it, "He always has a smile and a kind word for everyone." It is very hard to find someone who is exceptionally intelligent and also a wonderful , humble human being. My professor's family of four (beautiful, sweet children all under ten) and lovely,generous-spirited wife (who is expecting the fifth), along with their deep spiritual faith has been a continual source of joy for him. All this made us, his students, even more shocked and heartbroken when we found out his cancer was terminal ... Read Full Story >>

5052 Reads

"If I Had Ten More Years"

Paul was dying of cancer.  It became clear to him that it was time for him to prepare for death. About a week before Paul died, I was visiting him one morning.  I found him sitting up, propped against a mound of pillows.  I sat on the edge of his bed.  His bedroom had a beautiful porch with French doors that were always open to the summer sun and gentle breezes.  Paul sat, silent, in the rays of the morning light. "I feel ready to go," he said finally.  There was quiet on his face.  "But sometimes," he reflected, "I just wish I had more time."  Paul's voice carried so much sadness mingled with acceptance, melancholy softened with a gentle peace.  In a moment like this, it is bittersweet.  Some of our dreams have come true, some have not.  There is a readiness to die, accompanied by an equally passionate wish to ... Read Full Story >>

20.6K Reads

In Flight From San Francisco

Airports, even familiar airport, are very difficult to negotiate alone, when you have lost a good deal of your eyesight, as I have.  Boarding a recent flight out of San Francisco, I sank into my seat with relief and belted myself in.  I was seated at the bulk head on the aisle.  The window seat was occupied by an elegant older man.  There was an empty seat between us.  Looking to escape the tension of the past half hour, I put my purse on it and took out a murder mystery and began to read.  When lunch was served an hour later, I was deeply engrossed, the book inches from my nose.  We were given a salad, a bagel, and a pint container of yogurt.  Times have changed. Continuing to read, I tucked into my plate until my seatmate gasped in dismay.  Turning my head slightly, I saw that he had ... Read Full Story >>

3869 Reads
  • Posted by Marianna
  • May 25, 2009
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Choosing to Live Fully

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, 'If I were any better, I would be twins!'  He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.  Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, "I don't get it!  You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"    He replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood, or you can choose to be in a bad mood.  I choose to be in a good mood.   Each time something bad ... Read Full Story >>

7900 Reads

Growing From A Rescue Opportunity

We had a marvelous 10 days in Idaho and were driving home a day earlier than we'd planned. We just wanted to have a day to rest and prepare for our work weeks ahead. Little did we know the impact our leaving early would have on someone else. We left Caldwell, Idaho at around 1pm and went through a small town called Marsing, population 790. They have a volunteer fire department, a couple of gas stations and a small market. About 10 miles on the other side of Marsing, we saw thick black plumes of smoke miles down the road to where we were driving. It didn't look good at all. We got to where the smoke was, and discovered a Big Rig (18-wheel truck) on fire and the driver was sitting on the side of the road. Another car pulled over to see if everything was okay too. We pulled up to assist ... Read Full Story >>

3919 Reads

Learning How To Live Happily, Again

One of my patients is a successful businessman and he told me that before his cancer he became depressed unless things went a certain way. Happiness was "having the cookie." If he had the cookie, things were good. If he didn't have the cookie, life wasn't worth a damn.  Unfortunately, the cookie kept changing. Some of the time it was money, sometimes power, sometimes sex.  At other times, it was the new car, the biggest contract, the most prestigious address. A year and a half after his diagnosis of prostate cancer he sat shaking his head ruefully. "It's like I stopped learning how to live after I was a kid. When I give my son a cookie, he is happy. If I take the cookie away or it breaks, he is unhappy. But he is two and a half and I am forty-three. It's taken me this long to understand that ... Read Full Story >>

5070 Reads

Footprints of Love

I have been blessed with opportunity in my life, and it took the near-death of my dad to make me realize that my purpose in life is to help others. My dad was diagnosed with leukemia in 1998 and watching the pain and treatment that he endured inspired me to be a more kind and giving person.  It was like a smack in the face as I woke up one morning and realized life is just too short and it was time for me to make some changes – do the things in life that I wanted to do without making excuses why I couldn’t do them, or telling myself that I had plenty of time to do things. Well, you never know when your hourglass will run out of sand.  The time was now. My dad needed a bone marrow transplant. He was given a procedure in which he was able to reuse ... Read Full Story >>

5186 Reads
  • Posted by trueself75
  • Jul 24, 2009
  • 19 Comments
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An Invisible Gift of a Brochure

It was in the early 1970s that I was employed by Rockwell in Downey on the space shuttle program.  The pressure to produce was intense with constant demands to meet schedules with teams of people of disparate skills and motivation.  I had been involved in the Gurdjieff work for a short time and was beginning to experience a bit of the calm that comes from the meditation practice.  At lunch time, my habit was to walk around the area adjacent to the test facility.  One day while so occupied, I came across a small strip mall that had a space rented to a branch of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation organization. Having a bit of curiosity about the technique, I entered the facility and spoke with a pleasant and slightly plump young woman who appeared to be quite calm.  Although it was not my interest to sign up for the courses ... Read Full Story >>

2640 Reads
  • Posted by jdurbin
  • Jul 20, 2009
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A Story of True Love and Acceptance

This is what True Love is all about: It was a busy morning, approximately 8:30 a.m., when an elderly gentleman in his 80's arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He stated that he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.    I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him look at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound.     On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.   While taking care of his wound, we began to engage in conversation.  I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry. The ... Read Full Story >>

38.2K Reads