Today Jeanne took her first trip in over 2 years that was not in an ambulance. She had an appointment with a urologist, and the folks at Hillcrest took care of all the details -- making the appointment, arranging for transportation, providing a wheelchair that accomodated Jeanne's contracted legs and pulling her pertinent medical records together for the doctor to review.
I arrived at Hillcrest to accompany Jeanne to her appointment and Kia, Jeanne's nurse arrived a few minutes later. Today was Kia's day off. Kia has her own life. She has two incredible boys who deserve her time and attention. But she had made sure that Jeanne's appointment was set up on her day off so that she could accompany us -- making the logistics of the trip safe, familiar and comfortable to Jeanne. It wasn't until we were hours into the day that I discovered that Kia was not being paid for being with us.
I've written here before that Kia is like a member of our family. Today I realized that she's much more than that. The truth is that neither my family nor Jeanne's has been particularly supportive as she's bravely battled MS. Consequently, we've been estranged from both sides of our family for several years. That's left me to create a family made up of those people who could be counted on to be there for us -- no matter what. And that's who Kia Campbell is. She's part of my family of choice.
We've all heard the old saying that, "...you can't pick your family." Well, I've done exactly that. And tonight as I look back on the events of the day, I'm truly thankful to have picked Kia to be a part of our family. And I'm equally thankful that she's apparently picked us, too.
P.S. -- Jeanne managed today's trip so well that I've promised her that our next outing will be completely non-medical -- and might even be fun!
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