Parting Hospital Images

Here are some parting images from the hospital.

When I arrived on her last day in the hospital, she was practicing walking with a physical therapist in the stairwell.  She was in really good spirits.  She showed me the "White House" where the "president lives." Hm.  She loved the view.  I let her use my good camera (I probably wouldn't let her use it on a good day, and here she was on her little excited wobbly legs and I let her snap away.  Think a near-death experience (exaggeration) turned me back into a softie?)

She caught me off guard with this one.  Its funny because they had a photo in the elevator that I got to see a zillion times, an ad for a stress class-- it was a photo of a woman, presumably a parent, closing her eyes and supposedly taking a deep breath.  She looked how I felt, I thought.  But then I noticed her neck veins.  They were super bulgy.  I couldn't stop fixating on the bulgy neck veins, weird as it sounds, the millions of times I kept seeing that photo.  And here I am, unconsciously chin holding and forehead wrinkling.  Maybe if there was a side view my neck veins would be bulging.

Why don't I mind that she is taking pictures of stuff like this?  I found a million pictures of gummy bears arranged in various creative arrangements on my phone the day after she was admitted, and I'm pretty sure she is the culprit. Normally I get a bit annoyed by the commandeering of my phone, but I found myself hoping she'd be back soon taking photos of gummy bears and my dark closet (pure black photos, not kidding).  I'm just so happy she is "back."  So happy for evidence of it.

 Painted her nails on day #3.  The "activity cart" people were emotional life savers.

This book made her laugh for the first time in a few days.  We read Curious George Goes to the Hospital and she kept laughing and saying "that's just like me!"  But she laughed hardest when George got a shot.

Stopped to get her a little treat on the way home, only she had conked out.  Happy as she had been, I remembered that she is still a bit fragile and recovering.  Her little hands (!).  They've been poked a lot this week, and she was such a trooper about it.

That little face.  I had lots of time to stare at her sleeping on that first night, in the dark, while I held her little trembling knee.  I got to see again just how beautiful she is.  And how much she means to me.  I hoped and prayed for this moment so hard.  For her to come home in her little purple coat, okay.  What a gift these little people are.