A ride in an ambulance

Makes you forget about your headache.

Yesterday at the 6:30 meeting, my friend Larry (who I love) looked like he was having a heart attack. He had gone to the bathroom, and when he came out, my friend Holly (who I love) was sitting by the door of the meeting room and saw him about to pass out. She left the meeting and called him an ambulance. She then came back in the meeting room and announced "Can someone come and sit with Larry while I wait for the ambulance?" The ENTIRE ROOM stood up and started heading for the door. She then said "NOT EVERYONE... Mary, please come." So I went and sat with Larry. The EMTs were so cute. They asked us if we knew his last name, and then thought about where they were (an AA club) and said "you probably don't know his last name." But I did, and I could even spell it, which is a big deal if you knew what it was! Then I rode in the ambulance to the hospital with him. I thought it was also cute that they asked him if he had been drinking this morning, or last night, or if he had used any "recreational drugs." I can't believe how tacky I am to take a picture with my cell phone while riding in an ambulance, with my friend fading in and out of consciousness in the back.

Larry got to the hospital and got an EKG (which tells you nothing when you have a pacemaker), a chest X-ray, blood work, etc. The bottom line is that they don't know what happened. They wanted to admit him, but he, the alcoholic that he is, said he wanted to go home, and they let him because he looked perfectly fine, after having oxygen and IV fluids for a couple of hours.

I met his son, and fell in love with him. This young man walked into the ER, in his Army uniform - just like my son's - with Larry's last name emblazoned across his chest, a 30 year old handsome Italian-American man. My daughter Laura needs to meet him, because I NEED for him to be my son-in-law... if only so I can look at him more often!

I am so grateful to have friends like Larry and that I get to meet their handsome sons, that I have friends like Holly who deeply care about us, that I go to an AA group where the ENTIRE ROOM stands up when someone needs help, and that I get to be a part of it all. I am so blessed. There was a time when someone like Holly would have announced "Someone come and help - anyone BUT Mary." Because every single thing was about ME!

From being in AA these years, I have learned that there are very few things that are about ME. And when I know that, I get to just be a part of God's Creation, and I get to just love people without worrying whether I am getting back in equal proportion. Life is so much better this way. Thanks to a loving God and the program of Alcoholics Anonymous.

"Regardless of worldly success or failure, regardless of pain or joy, regardless of sickness or health or even of death itself, a new life of endless possibilities can be lived if we are willing to continue our awakening, through the practice of AA's Twelve Steps." -- As Bill Sees It, p. 8