Wake Up . . . Alive

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La dee da! I had just trekked a 10 day circuit in 5 days. I was feeling mighty good. I planned to go to Bali in a few days and surf it up. I woke up that beautiful day in the end of August feeling invincible.

I hadn't been in touch with civilization for a while (didn't miss it in the slightest) but I decided to check my email.

I scrolled through the junk and eventually came upon an email from my brother. The subject read: "Mom is not well". When I opened up the email it just said "Call me".

So I did. It was 3.30 am over in east coast USA and I was waking everyone up. When my brother picked up the phone he had been sleeping in a hotel room in Richmond, VA. with his wife, baby girl and there were two of my mom's friends in the room also.

He went on a tirade to fill me in on what had happened. I felt my body cringe in pain and disgust as he told me about the massive stroke followed by a heart attack that my mom had undergone.

Dave, who I was going to meet for lunch came in and cheerfully surprised me. I looked at him like I was going to kill him.

My mother had been acting sort of incoherent on Sunday evening. When she got off the phone she went to sleep for work. Now I'm not sure exactly how the stroke worked but it basically shut down the left side of her brain that night. The part that controls speech, eyesight, and rational thought was bombarded.

My stepdad went to wake her for work and she wouldn't move and barely breathed. The house cats were gathered in a seance around her with their hair on end. She was rushed to the nearest hospital where she was given life support on a machine that got her heart beating again.

The priest had been called in.

The doctor called Harland, my stepdad, Harland called my brother in Florida and they got on a plane and were there with my niece. They medi-vaced her down to the best facility on the east coast for heart conditions and that's where they all were waiting for news on her recovery when I called.

All this had happened when I was at 10,000 feet having the hike of my life. I felt so helpless. And everything felt pointless.

I will never forget getting off the phone after that conversation, in a daze and feeling like i was carrying a truck. I had already lost my father and all my grandparents and now I was close to losing my momma the closest one to me. The one who I came from. I sat down with Dave, ordered a whiskey and told him about it. He looked at me like I knew what I should do.

That night I was arranging a flight from Kathmandu Nepal; my birthland- to Washington DC; capital of my homeland.

Next day I was on that plane with a heavy heart prepared to do what I could do just in being there for my lovely momma who had mysteriously called me home from my journey of a place she loved very much and from where I was conceived.

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