support teams matter

she didn't feel so good so she called.
whatchya doin'? she asked with a weak voice.
'just work stuff.
you doin' okay? i asked back....

she was hopin i could sit with her as
she was worried about feeling bad and bein'
alone.

of course.
i'll be right down.

ran up to tell the boys i might be gone for
fifteen minutes or i might end up at the
hospital.

such is life when you have an elderly neighbor.

it always worries me that i'm the one she
counts on. i never quite felt
responsible/knowledgeable/whateverable
enough to play that role. but here i am.

she was pale when i walked in. i know better
than to say that.
i sat down and said some goofy stuff,
made her laugh, asked for symptoms
and gave a back rub.

she told me about being scared and being
all alone and i rubbed her back and told
her it was hard and of course she
was scared and i understood.

as i touched her, i consciously thought
of the power of human
contact. talked to her about it.
how we all needed to be touched.

we got her over to the table to take
her blood pressure. she was
already looking better.
so great.
we got a blood pressure.
what do these numbers mean??

like i say....i'm not the world's
best caretaker.
but my gosh, i have the world's best
support system.

first call went to yo.
will you look up on the net if these numbers
look high low or fine???
i talked to both yo and my neighbor as
all this went on.
i heard my voice, gentle and steady when my
insides were just plain ol not.

we decided it prolly was okay,
but we'd keep checkin into it.
in the meantime i called my guy.
i knew he was swamped with a huge project
at work that involved being with a buncha other
people and workin' hard with them.

i didn't hesitate.
i knew he'd be there for us no matter what.

i called and said 'your women need you.
have you got a minute for georgia and i?'

i never call him on his cell at work unless
it truly matters.
he caught it right away and stopped everything
to listen. he gave me his two cents.
hung up with him, yo called back.
he had gotten input from both zakk and josh.
both were helpful.
and he said 'josh launched right into how
blood pressure works. how does he know all
this stuff, mom?!'

we took her pressure again.
much lower. much better.

maybe having a whole support team loving you
matters more than we'll ever know.

we sat at her table and she told me her troubles.
i listened, nodded, and offered sympathy.

she looked 100 percent better.
i went home to gather some stuff and now
i'm on her living room floor with yo's laptop.

josh just walked in.
i may not be the best support in the world....
but i come with a whole darn loving team behind me.

growin' old scares me......