One of the most powerful positive stories of choice is told
by writer, Niel Lorenz of Dayton, Ohio. Lorenz tells how a friend, a young wife
and mother were three, chose to spend the last year of her life while afflicted
with cancer.
”Linda made it clear from the beginning that cancer was inconvenient,
annoying and unwelcome, but that it would not rule her life. Accordingly, she and her whole family
continued to take scuba lessons at a local pool to prepare for a big family
vacation in the Cayman Islands. Linda was determined not just to go but to
participate in the family holiday. So adamant was she about this that when her
blood count proved dismal the day before the intended trip, she simply checked
herself into the hospital overnight, and received the medication she needed
through an all-night I.V. connection.
Once in the islands, she rested and watched her family go
out for their daily excursions to the reef. But she wanted to go diving with
him, be a participant, not just an observer. In response to her incredible
determination and positive spirit, a group of local diving instructors devised
a way that she could join her family. Because her spine was too brittle and
ulcerated to bear the weight of a tank, they fitted her with a mask and
mouthpiece and, as she breathed it in, they weighted her just enough to put her
under the water. Then they floated an
oxygen tank on a piece of foam above her head and carefully add weights until
Linda, the divers, and the tank slipped slowly beneath the surface. For nearly
an hour the entire family was able to explore the wonders of the island reefs.
Later, when Linda’s husband Steve tried to pay for all the
extra time and effort the dive team had gone to, he was turned down with these
words:
We dive here every day. We have seen that reef literally
hundreds of times. We know every rock, every piece of coral and practically
every fish on it. Today, however, we saw it through the eyes of someone with
such courage, search spirit and such a zest for living that we looked at it in
a different way. It is we who thank you….”
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