Email To the Physician

I wish that I could say that this was a deep letter that I wrote to The Great Physician but it is not,  although I pray everything I do is for HIS Glory.  This is the actual email that I sent to my mom’s oncologist.  As I wrote the letter,  I realized it was also a wake up call to myself.  Isn’t funny how God always sweetly and gently does that! 

 

I pray that I never miss “the person” in pursuit of prosperity, popularity, power or position.  I know that there have been times in my life that I have missed the “divine appointments” right in front of me while speeding toward a self-defined goal or dream.  It is only when I allow God to direct my footsteps by staying on my knees and in the Word that HIS DESTINY for me becomes clear.  In those moments I realize that every step, every person along the path is a destination in itself.

 

In humble gratitude I share this email, gratitude for the legacy my mom is leaving me and gratitude to the GOD she introduced me too.  GoGod

 

Dear Physician and his nurse,

 

My name is Katie Wilson and my mother, JoAnn Johnson,  is your patient.  She held your 11:30, January 29th appointment at your Walnut Grove location.  I would like to begin by saying thank you for using your God given intelligence to treat cancer patients.  From the mouth of babes, “I wish cancer would get caner and die”.  Seeing that you fight this “giant” every day, I am assuming you agree with this statement.

 

Due to your ever increasing patient load,  I know it is probably hard to keep your patients straight.  You have an amazing receptionist, although I did not get her name, who looks people in the eye, who laughs at their nervous jokes that are an attempt to cover up the fear and sadness surrounding the reason for a “cancer doctor visit’, who patiently answers questions about mounds of paper work that family members struggle to wrap their hurting brains around, and who calls you by name as if you were her friend and not a simple birthday or social security number.  It is very important to have the “Medical HiSTORY Taker” but it would be of equal importance to have a “STORY Taker”.  I know that would be extra man power and the patient would need to arrive early; however, I believe it would be easy to get a “volunteer” to sit with cancer patients and simply ask them about the “beautiful tapestry” that makes up that life!  To be honest, what is the point of living if you believe your life made not mark on this world.  If a patient has the opportunity to recall their life, that may be the memory that inspires them to fight!  For a doctor or nurse to read even one line of a patients story and start a visit with, “I see you were a flight attendant in your 20’s and I too have “servants of the air” in my family”, for instance, I believe the statistics on your cancer survivors would improve.  

 

Let me introduce you to June 2, 1930.  Her name is JoAnn Hawks Johnson and she was your 11:30 on January 29th. She was accompanied by her daughter, son and best friend, Ms. Oleta Erby.  JoAnn was in a wheelchair with house shoes that have replaced her elegant high heel.  She wore a class black pant suit with a coral under shell.  The coral colored matched her lipstick and for most of her life her fingernails sported the same hue.

 

JoAnn is the oldest of 4 children and as a child, her mother made most of her clothes to match the precious wardrobe of Shirley Temple.  JoAnn loves to dance and is quite good at it, although her medical condition and age, 82,  wrestle with the girlish memories still waltzing in her mind.  For her generation, JoAnn was quite the renaissance woman.  JoAnn was the traveling representative for her sorority; she owned a dress shop with a friend, and  she was a Delta Flight attendant back in the day when  grace and “others-first” were the definition of “character”.  She did not marry until she was almost 30, at which time she began a family and was a wife and mother of 4 at the age of 40.  JoAnn was married to Fletcher Gilbert Johnson, a Godly man who loved Jesus, worked hard as a traveling sales man, and parented with the utmost integrity and patience.  JoAnn was a faithful, adoring and kind wife for over 30 years and has been a strong, independent, generous widow for over 20.