Lunches with Lisa

Since I've been traveling to satellite locations more often, Lisa usually sends me an email me to check if I'm going to be at the hospital for lunch.

She emailed Thursday.

Are you here? Can you do lunch?

Yep. Here all day.

Wait till you hear this one!

I walked up to the lunch table and Lisa was shaking her head and smiling.

"You've never heard anything like this before."

I was intrigued because Lisa has some great stories so if she thinks it's unique, it must be.

A woman (we'll call her Mrs. Smith) came into Lisa's office for a surgery consultation and after Lisa took her medical history, Mrs. Smith mentioned that since her mother passed away, she keeps something of her mother's with her at all times.

Lisa raised her eyebrows and tilted her head at me.

"What? You wear grandma's wedding band." I pointed out to Lisa. "That's not so unusual. People do that all the time."

Lisa held her hand up,"Can I finish? Just wait.."

She proceeded to tell me that Mrs. Smith explained to her that she and her mother had never been particularly close and that she had asked the funeral home to give this to her without her siblings knowledge. She said that initially she felt a little guilty, but 15 years later, she was glad that she had part of her mother with her.

"I feel like she's with me every day. We've traveled to California and last year, we went to Niagara Falls. It's like she gets to see all these places that she never got the chance to go to."

"That's really nice," Lisa replied, "I'm glad that you can take comfort in that."

"Would you like to see it?" Mrs. Smith asked.

"Certainly. That would be lovely."

Lisa expected Mrs. Smith to bring out a ring or some other type of family heirloom and she leaned in a little closer to her as she lifted a small box out her purse.

"Here, let me open it for you." Mrs. Smith whispered.

Lisa's eyes grew a little wider as she stared at it. "Oh my. It's so blue."



I swear, I cannot make this stuff up.