Last week I received an awesome message on my work voicemail. The sender was choking back tears.
"Hi. This is 'Jane Doe' and this message is for Yolanda. I want to let you know that I am off all of my insulin, I am feeling great, and I owe it all to you. Thank you so much for all of your help."
I had to pull the chart and look at her driver's license photo to remember who she was. Early 60's, dressed in a perfectly pressed Talbots ensemble. She plays tennis everyday, is not an ounce overweight, and has an impressively sound diet. In spite of her healthful lifestyle, her blood sugars had been through the roof for 3 months. She was nice but a little reserved. Fortunately I had some great ideas of ways for her to improve her blood sugars. A month later I spoke to her briefly while she waited to see one of our nurses. "How are things going?", I asked. "Fantastic", she said. "The doctor lowered my insulin dose. You have no idea how much you helped me." There wasn't anything particularly special about our meetings, yet through her tears, I could hear her desperation to tell me exactly how much she appreciated my help. While it certainly feels nice to hear that I helped, it really isn't that big of a deal to me - just doin' my job.
This week I am on the other end of a Thank You. Kyle goes to what I think is the absolute best pre-school that has ever existed. The teachers have advanced degrees in things like Human Development and Counseling and Art. Sunflower has teachers that have been there for 20 years and teachers that are fresh out of school w/ a ready-to-take-on-the-world spring in their step. This cool balance of wisdom and vibrancy, experience and optimism permeates the Sunflower air.
Sometimes it actually creeps me out how Stepford it can be in there. Everyone is always happy. If there is chaos, it is completely controlled chaos. Sunflower loves to tell you that they are not at all about the academics . . . "children learn through play and play is their work." To hear them tell it, all they care about it that the kids are kind and tolerant and have manners. Whatever. Sunflower kids are polite, compliant, sweet AND they come home brilliant. "I sure hope they took Pluto off that puzzle" Kyle tells me when I brought home a solar system puzzle. "It isn't a planet anymore, ya' know".
Monday all of the parents got a letter from the Preschool's owner/director telling us that Ms.Elyse has decided to leave Sunflower. First my stomach turned, then I got chills. If I had more presence of mind I would have run to the bathroom to prepare for a bout of food poisoning. It wasn't food poisoning, it wasn't the flu, it was sheer desperation and panic. How on earth am I going to tell Ms. Elyse how much I appreciate her and all that she has done? Should I beg her to stay? Make her feel guilty? No, I don't want to make her feel anything but excited to enter a new phase of her life.
Ms. Elyse, I would guess, is in her mid-20s and has been at Sunflower for 7 years. She is a Sunflower alum and the assistant director. From the moment I met her I felt like she was positioning herself to take over Sunflower at any moment. And when she did take over, I knew it would be with a brilliant outfit on, perfectly styled hair and the cutest paint smock ever. I took one look at Elyse and knew I wanted to be her friend. Once I walked in moments after a child had puked on her. She handed the sick kid a rubber trashcan and proceeded to talk to me as she cleaned herself up. "That is the first time I have gotten puked on. Usually I can move out of the way. I have to call my mom and tell her I didn't freak out!".
Perhaps the quality I admire most in Ms Elyse is her ability to make everyone feel welcome. She never made me feel crazy or neurotic or out-of-place. I never saw a judgemental or unprofessional moment from Elyse. She is able to make you feel like you just came home when you walk through the door.
And so here I am, totally unable to extend an appropriate thank you to Ms Elyse. Even if I knew what to say, I couldn't get it out without collapsing into a heap of pathetic tears. And what would I say anyway? Would it mean enough if I told her that Kyle was on a short path to prison until he met her and she set him straight? Perhaps this is how my patient felt when she left me a message. Perhaps it is all karma - I helped with some stupid blood sugars and Ms. Elyse helped raise my son for a year. All I know is that when it comes to Ms. Elyse, thank you just isn't enough.
