How Did I Get So Lucky In Life?...

     It started with a phone call the day I was hospitalized.  My good friend and neighbor, DC, placed a call to Ms. Merrinuts (of course that's not her real name...on "Cheese", all names are changed to protect the innocent!), requesting her assistance in installing a handrailing in my stairwell...you see, since I moved into my home, this minor project had never yet become a necessity.  I could, after all, WALK on my own without assistance...so like everything else, this project was "talked" about, but never completed.

     DC was there when the the fire department showed up now over a week ago...she saw the difficulty I had getting up my stairwell with them...she dialed another dear friend and coworker, Ms. Merrinuts...the "Go To Gal".  It's a well-known fact, if you want something done right and done right the first time, ask Ms. Merrinuts...after all, she's dayum near perfect!

     Ms. Merrinuts and hubby, Jorge (pronounced "whore hey") made the decision unbeknownst to me to take on this project...a Christmas gift, she called it...to buy the materials, stain the wood, and install a stairwell handrail FOR me.  Note the photo...and, of course taken of their backsides to protect their anonymity!

     I got a call this afternoon from Ms. Merrinuts asking if this evening would be a good time to come by and install my new railing?  Not feeling the best and ALWAYS having difficulty accepting "help" from others, I hemmed and hawed a bit, but eventually agreed to the plan...they WERE going to be company in what has become a very non-stimulating world in my home!  How could I possibly pass up the opportunity to spend time with one of my favorite peeps?

     I sat on my perch with my head tilted to avoid the "bad" vertigo of looking up the stairwell and watched as Ms. Merrinuts and Jorge GLEEFULLY installed my new railing...they laughed with each other...they made me laugh...they even appeared to ENJOY the project.  The entire evening was quite a "gift"...even if they hadn't installed the handrail. 

     For a few hours, I got to "forget" how awful I felt...I got to pretend to be "normal" and hang out, in spite of my head pounding and feeling dizzy at times.  I got to laugh...I was afraid I had forgotten how to do that...laugh.

     I believe tonight may have been one of the best, all-time, favorite Christmas gifts I have ever received...a true appreciation for FRIENDSHIP brought home to me by good friends...there's just no toaster oven or piece of jewelry under the tree that can top that...true friendship...

     In the words of my "hero", Dr. Seuss, let me plagiarize from the wonderful holiday movie, "How The Grinch Stole Christmas": 

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,

Stood puzzling and puzzling:  "How could it be so?

"It came without ribbons!  It came without tags!

It came without packages, boxes or bags!"

And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!

"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store.

"Maybe Christmas . . .perhaps . . .means a little bit more!"