It's kind of crazy how one minute your life is fine and then all of a sudden your world is thrown off its axis. Yesterday afternoon I was watching a show on Netflix, scrolling through Pinterest, and drinking some iced tea when my phone rang. It was charging next to me so I reached over for it and saw my best friend's picture show up. I frowned because she usually never calls me on Mondays/Tuesday during the day because she's usually at school until late on both these days. I immediately answered, thinking something funny or exciting had happened, and of course just happy about hearing her voice.
The voice wasn't hers.
It was her classmate, telling me that Erika, my best friend for almost a decade, had a seizure at school during a break and they had to call 911 to take her to the hospital. We had met before, and knew we were close friends, so they wanted me to know.
I think I stopped breathing. I think the whole world stopped.
But it didn't. I thought "what a sick twisted joke!" I immediately called her brother, who confirmed the news and told me where to go. All I could (selfishly) think was that she was fine, maybe she had just fainted or something from lack of food, sleep, whatever. I kept saying she's fine, she's fine, because when the person who understands you like no one else on the planet is not okay, then it's suddenly a whole new level of anxiety and worry. I knew she hadn't been feeling the best lately, but it all seemed so unrelated I couldn't even think straight. I figured, it's my best friend- who cares about having to go to work! I would give everything to make sure she's ok.
The one and a half hour drive to Nashville seemed endless. Everyone was going super slow and I couldn't get there fast enough. When I did, and I saw her, laying there on the hospital bed- I saw my best memories- and they all included her and her laughter and her jokes. Her laughing at something stupid I did. Us laughing together at some joke we made. Us pretending to be soap opera stars or managers or shoe salesmen. If you know us, you know we are never quiet. We are always up to something.
To have to see your strong, beautiful, hilarious, full of life life partner on a bed with a ventilator is not something I wish upon my worst enemy.
And so at one point I was so upset I wanted to call her. I reached for my phone and dialed "baeita" because we made so much fun of the way people used "bae" that it became a habit for us to call each other that, too. In the same joke, we made fun of how Hispanic people always add "-ita" or "ito" to names (Example: brendita, erikita) so hence, baeita.
Erika would be so embarrassed I'm telling you this.
Anyway I almost pushed the green call button before I realized what I was doing. But I needed to her tell me a stupid joke. I needed her to laugh and to make fun of something with me. I wanted her to joke about the cute doctors and how messed up her hair was from the neuro tests. I wanted to tell her how utterly silly she looked with all those tubes coming in and out of her body. I wanted to tell her that every time the nurse tried to stick her, I wanted to stick the nurse with my fist. That I wanted them to stop hurting her. I wanted her to call me and answer with "Speak to me" and then I'd laugh and tell her to quit and she'd laugh too and then we'd have a 2 hour conversation before finally I'd say "so the reason why I called..." haha.
The voice wasn't hers.
It was her classmate, telling me that Erika, my best friend for almost a decade, had a seizure at school during a break and they had to call 911 to take her to the hospital. We had met before, and knew we were close friends, so they wanted me to know.
I think I stopped breathing. I think the whole world stopped.
But it didn't. I thought "what a sick twisted joke!" I immediately called her brother, who confirmed the news and told me where to go. All I could (selfishly) think was that she was fine, maybe she had just fainted or something from lack of food, sleep, whatever. I kept saying she's fine, she's fine, because when the person who understands you like no one else on the planet is not okay, then it's suddenly a whole new level of anxiety and worry. I knew she hadn't been feeling the best lately, but it all seemed so unrelated I couldn't even think straight. I figured, it's my best friend- who cares about having to go to work! I would give everything to make sure she's ok.
The one and a half hour drive to Nashville seemed endless. Everyone was going super slow and I couldn't get there fast enough. When I did, and I saw her, laying there on the hospital bed- I saw my best memories- and they all included her and her laughter and her jokes. Her laughing at something stupid I did. Us laughing together at some joke we made. Us pretending to be soap opera stars or managers or shoe salesmen. If you know us, you know we are never quiet. We are always up to something.
To have to see your strong, beautiful, hilarious, full of life life partner on a bed with a ventilator is not something I wish upon my worst enemy.
And so at one point I was so upset I wanted to call her. I reached for my phone and dialed "baeita" because we made so much fun of the way people used "bae" that it became a habit for us to call each other that, too. In the same joke, we made fun of how Hispanic people always add "-ita" or "ito" to names (Example: brendita, erikita) so hence, baeita.
Erika would be so embarrassed I'm telling you this.
Anyway I almost pushed the green call button before I realized what I was doing. But I needed to her tell me a stupid joke. I needed her to laugh and to make fun of something with me. I wanted her to joke about the cute doctors and how messed up her hair was from the neuro tests. I wanted to tell her how utterly silly she looked with all those tubes coming in and out of her body. I wanted to tell her that every time the nurse tried to stick her, I wanted to stick the nurse with my fist. That I wanted them to stop hurting her. I wanted her to call me and answer with "Speak to me" and then I'd laugh and tell her to quit and she'd laugh too and then we'd have a 2 hour conversation before finally I'd say "so the reason why I called..." haha.
But of course I couldn't.
Please pray with me for my best friend
Please pray with me for my best friend
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