Connie's Corner

Thanksgiving....

Although my topic says "Thanksgiving", it's not really about thanksgiving. It's more about receiving and knowing how to accept a gift.

After seeing all the contests here on wdc about Thanksgiving, the memory of one particular Thanksgiving came to me. It was early November of 1992. My husband and my employer "ganged up" on me to make an appointment with a dermatologist about a mole on my temple that looked suspicious to them. They wouldn't give up and I finally went to see Dr. Wilkerson. She barely glanced at the mole and told me I needed to see a surgeon right away. She made the appointment for that afternoon. The plastic surgeon echoed her words. He removed the mole and surrounding tissue and did a skin graft the very next day. Just before Thanksgiving I got the lab report that the mole was indeed a melanoma and the surrounding tissue was clear.

I had a huge bandage (it seemed huge, anyway) and some stitches. I was very thankful for loved ones who would not take no for an answer. The morning I went to the plastic surgeon everything was so poignant. I remember the chill in the air as we raised the garage door. In fact, I can feel it right now as I think about it. And moving almost soundlessly through the sky, but huge it was so close, there was the Goodyear Blimp, in town for the football game the next day. When I think of it, it seems like it was just yesterday

My daughter had come down (she lived around 80 miles away) to go to the doctor with us. She only had one child at the time, my grandson, Jimmy, who was 2 years old. Of course, she had left him at home with his dad. When we got back home, she wanted to stay and cook Thanksgiving dinner for us the next day, but all I could think about was the pain I was feeling and how her husband must be climbing the walls by now with Jimmy. So I emphatcally said "no" and Jim and I spent a lonely Thanksgiving eating chicken noodle soup.

My point is...why couldn't I have accepted the gift my daughter wanted to give. What a wonderful Thanksgiving it could have been, but I was stubborn and thought I would be putting everyone to a lot of unnecessary trouble. I wish I had another chance. Sometimes it's just better to receive than to give.

Till next time......c